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The  Ohio  State  University  Bulletin 

Volume  XXII  August,  1917  Number  3 

THE  OHIO  STATE  UNIVERSITY  STUDIES 
Contributions  in  History  and  Political  Science  Number  4 


Western  Influences  on  Political 
Parties  to  1825  • 

AN  ESSAY  IN  HISTORICAL  INTERPRETATION 


By 

HOMER  C.  HOCKETT 

Professor  of  AmerHcan  History  in 
The  Ohio  State  University 


THE  OHIO  STATE  UNIVERSITY 


TO 

FREDERICK  JACKSON  TURNER 

In  Acknowledgment  of  a  Debt  which  but  Increases  with  the 

Lapse  of  Years 


368573 


PREFACE 

This  study  was  begun  in  a  search  for  the  key  to  the  political  his- 
tory of  Monroe's  presidency,  so  long  superficially  known  as  the  Era 
of  Good  Feeling.  The  quest  for  the  unifying  principle  of  this  con- 
fused period  revealed,  however,  that  it  could  not  be  separated  from 
the  events  which  marked  the  earlier  history  of  parties,  and  that  it 
would  be  necessary  to  treat  the  whole  question  of  the  rise  and  de- 
cline of  the  first  pair  of  parties  in  the  United  States — Federalism 
and  Jeffersonian  Republicanism,  Due  regard  for  the  threads  of  con- 
tinuity in  this  larger  topic  required  that  the  operation  of  forma- 
tive influences  be  traced  from  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  to  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth.  The  study 
has  thus  become  a  sketch  of  our  party  evolution  down  to  1825,  so 
far  as  that  evolution  was  influenced  by  new  forces  and  issues  re- 
leased or  raised  by  the  development  of  new  western  areas. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  essay  may  be  sufficiently  successful  to  war- 
rant a  continuation  of  this  type  of  study  for  the  period  since  1825. 

OHIO  STATE  UNIVERSITY 

August  12,  1916 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Page 
THE  ORIGIN  OF  PARTIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES: 

1.  Colonial  Antecedents 9 

2.  The  Revolutionary  Period 22 

3.  Rise  of  the  Federalist  and  Republican  Parties 27 

CHAPTER  II 
THE   TRIUMPH   OF   THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   WESTERN   EQUALITY    41 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM 51 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DISRUPTION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY: 

1.  The  Era  op  Nationalism 81 

2.  Development  of  Economic  Life  and  Thought  of  the  West.  .  91 

3.  Divergence  of  West  and  South 112 

CHAPTER  V 

TENDENCIES  TOWARDS  REALIGNMENT  OF    PARTIES 127 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 145 

INDEX 151 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  ORIGIN  OF  PARTIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

1.   Colonial  Antecedents 

In  Europe  political  parties  have  divided  in  the  main  along 
lines  of  social  stratification ;  in  the  United  States  the  lines  of  cleav- 
age have  tended  to  be  geographical.  The  reason  for  this  difference 
is  that  the  parties  of  modern  Europe  have  developed  within  coun- 
tries occupying  definitely  fixed  territories,  while  in  the  United 
States  settlement  has  expanded  over  a  continent  many  times  out- 
measuring  the  region  which  it  occupied  at  the  beginning  of  our 
national  history.  The  origin  of  our  parties  is  therefore  to  be  sought 
in  the  variation  of  social  types  incident  to  the  westward  move- 
ment of  population  from  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  our  party  history 
is  closely  connected  at  every  epoch  with  the  changes  resulting  from 
each  stage  of  the  westward  advance.  It  was  the  development  of  a 
group  of  inland  settlements  differing  in  important  ways  from  the 
coast  communities  which  first  gave  rise  to  those  conflicting  eco- 
nomic interests  and  social  ideals  which  have  furnished  the  causes 
of  party  groupings  throughout  our  history.^ 

The  forces  of  social  selection  began  very  early  in  colonial  days 
to  produce  differences  between  the  older  settlements  and  the  new. 


1  "We  may  trace  the  contest  between  the  capitalist  and  the  democratic  pioneer  from  the 
earliest  colonial  days." — Frederick  J.  Turner,  in  the  Aynerican  Historical  Review,  XVI,  227. 
The  idea  of  social  differentiation  as  a  result  of  the  westward  movement  was  first  set  forth 
clearly  by  Professor  Turner  in  the  essay  on  "The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American 
History,"  in  the  American  Historical  Association  Report  for  1893. 

During  the  past  two  decades  several  writers  working  independently  have  produced  mono- 
graphs dealing  with  the  social  development  and  sectional  struggles  in  so  many  of  the  colonies 
that  it  is  now  possible,  by  putting  together  the  facts  revealed  by  their  researches,  to  obtain  a 
fairly  comprehensive  understanding  of  the  evolution  of  this  group  of  inland  settlements  and 
of  the  reasons  why  they  came  into  conflict  with  the  older  communities.  The  more  important 
of  these  monographs  are : 

Ambler,    C.   H.,   Sectionalism   in    Virginia. 

Bassett,  J.  S.,  "The  Regulators  of  North  Carolina,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assn.  Report  for  1894. 

Becker,  C.  L.,  The  History  of  Political  Parties  in  the  Province  of  New  York,  1760-1776 
(University  of  Wisconsin  Bulletin,   History   Series,   II,  No.   1). 

Lincoln,   C.   H.,    The  Revolutionary  Movement   in  Pennsylvania. 

Schaper,  W.  A.,  "Sectionalism  and  Representation  in  South  Cai-olina,"  in  Amer.  Hist. 
Assn.  Report  for  1900,  I. 

The  whole  subject  of  the  foi-mation  of  the  social  order  of  the  interior  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  has  been  summarized  by  Professor  Turner  in  "The  Old  West,"  State  Historical  Society 
of  Wisconsin  Proceedings  for  1908. 

9 


10  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

The  first  colonists  were  frontiersmen,  wielding  the  axe  and  build- 
ing their  cabins  and  rude  blockhouses  in  the  forest  clearings. 
Wilderness  conditions  gave  way  with  surprising  rapidity,  however, 
to  those  of  settled  life,  and  the  frontier  line  began  its  westward 
march  towards  the  setting  sun.  Long  before  it  crossed  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  the  dominant  members  of  the  communities  first  settled 
had  worked  out  a  measurably  satisfactory  adjustment  between  their 
ideals  and  environment,  and  had  set  up  ecclesiastical,  political,  and 
economic  systems  which  they  desired  to  perpetuate.  The  hunters, 
fur  traders,  and  farmers  upon  whom  fell  the  chief  task  of  settling 
the  interior  came,  on  the  other  hand,  from  those  elements  of  the 
population  which  were  more  or  less  in  ill-adjustment  with  the  coast- 
al order.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  two  contrasting  societies  dwelt  between  the  moun- 
tains and  the  sea,  the  one  occupying  the  coast  lands,  the  other  the 
"back  country,"  and  thus  was  prepared  the  stage  for  the  first  party 
divisions. 

In  the  Old  Dominion,  during  the  rise  of  tobacco  planting,  men 
of  small  means  were  unable  to  maintain  themselves  as  land  holders 
in  the  fertile  valleys  of  the  tidewater,  in  competition  with  the 
wealthy,^  and  found  it  necessary  to  retreat  either  to  the  more 
barren  upland  between  the  river  courses,  or  towards  their  sources, 
for  on  the  outskirts  of  settlement  lands  were  to  be  had  as  bounties 
for  defence  of  the  frontier.^  A  distinct  sectionalism  appeared  with- 
in the  colony  even  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
furnishes  the  true  clue  to  Bacon's  Rebellion.*  A  few  men  of  the 
upper  social  class,  like  Captain  William  Byrd,  of  more  adventur- 
ous nature  than  most  of  their  kind,  interested  themselves  in  fron- 
tier lands,  but  the  great  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  back 
settlements  were  poor  men  struggling  to  gain  a  foothold  by  dint 
of  their  own  labor.  Throughout  the  colonial  period,  in  fact,  most 
of  Virginia's  brilliant  society,  as  well  as  her  wealth  and  politi- 
cal power,  centered  in  the  slaveholding  plantations  of  the  tide- 


-  See  Bruce,  P.  A.,  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  I,  527  et  seq., 
on  the  tendency  towards  large  holidngs.  We  can  only  conjecture  the  process  by  which  en- 
grossment affected  the  small  farmers,  but  cf.  the  displacement,  two  centuries  later,  of  the 
small  farmer  in  the  Gulf  region  by  the  cotton  planter:  Phillips,  U.  B.,  "Origin  and  Growth  of 
the  Southern  Black  Belts,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Rev.,  XI,  798-816.    See  also  helow,  114  and  /.  n.   101. 

'  Bruce,  Economic  History,  I,  610  et  seq.  The  practice  of  "squatting"  must  have  ap- 
peared early  also.    See  Ford,  A.,  Colonial  Precedents  of  our  National  Land  System,  113. 

*  OsKOod,  H.   A.,   The  American  Coloniea  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,   III,  243-247. 


COLONIAL  ANTECEDENTS  11 

water.^  The  Anglican  establishment,  like  the  economic  system, 
tended  to  drive  certain  elements  of  the  population  from  the  coast 
regions.  In  the  days  of  intolerance,  the  exclusion  of  non-Anglicans 
resulted  in  an  overland  migration  from  the  James  River  to  Albe- 
marle Sound,  making  North  Carolina  for  a  time  virtually  a  frontier 
of  Virginia,  but  the  tempered  ecclesiasticism  of  the  eighteenth 
century  permitted  the  settlement  of  dissenters  in  the  interior,  thus 
adding  another  element  of  contrast  with  the  coast.  Although  some- 
what later  in  making  themselves  felt,  similar  forces  came  into  play 
in  North  Carolina  with  the  rise  of  the  plantation  system  there, 
and  with  similar  results.® 

As  the  social  order  of  the  coast  plain  crystallized,  the  outlet 
to  the  frontier  for  those  whom  the  system  hampered  impeded  the 
formation  of  social  strata,  but  stratification  after  the  European 
fashion  proceeded  apace  wherever  the  outlet  was  stopped.  Such 
was  the  case  for  a  time  in  South  Carolina,  where  access  to  the  in- 
terior was  difficult  because  of  the  broad  belt  of  "pine  barrens," 
which  ran  parallel  with  the  coast  and  isolated  the  piedmont.  Sub- 
stantially all  of  the  good  lands  lying  east  of  this  barrier  had  been 
engrossed  by  the  planters  before  population  began  to  move  into 
the  district  in  its  rear.  Hemmed  in  on  the  coast  the  whites  tended 
to  divide  into  two  classes:  the  planters  and  merchants  who  com- 
posed the  aristocracy  and  were  bent  on  such  an  organization  of 
industry  and  government  as  would  promote  their  own  interests, 
and  a  proletariat  which  would  probably  have  become  a  negligible 
political  force.  Foreign  commerce,  the  professions,  and  planting 
were  considered  to  be  the  only  respectable  vocations,  and  there 
was  little  room  in  the  economy  of  the  plantation  save  for  the  planter 
and  the  slave.^  Farther  north.  New  York  affords  another  example 
of  the  tendency  to  stratification.  Here  expansion  was  retarded  by 
the  Catskills  and  the  Iroquois  Confederacy  of  the  Mohawk  Valley, 
while  the  system  of  large  land  grants  in  vogue  from  the  days  of 
the  Dutch  patroons  enabled  the  landlords  to  lay  claim  to  available 
lands  far  in  advance  of  settlement.  A  legal  system  of  small  grants 
gave  a  measure  of  protection  to  poor  settlers  who  would  fight  for 
their  rights,  but  under  the  circumstances  many  preferred  lands  in 


^  Speculative  land  owning  in  the  Virginia  piedmont  became  common  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  most  of  the  population  continued  to  consist  of  poor  fanners  with  small  holdings. 
Cf.  Turner,  "Old  West,"  205. 

•/bid.,  207-209. 

"<  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  274,  804. 


12  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

other  colonies  where  fee  simple  titles  could  be  had  more  easily  and 
safely.  Vast  tracts  claimed  by  proprietors  therefore  remained  un- 
occupied, while  to  a  greater  extent  than  in  any  other  colony  white 
cultivators  of  the  soil  sank  to  the  status  of  semi-feudal  tenants.^ 

The  rise  of  an  interest  strong  enough  to  compete  with  the 
coastal  aristocracy  was  due  to  the  settlement  of  the  interior,  and 
its  story  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  coming  of  the  German  and 
Scotch-Irish  immigrants.^  Into  New  York  came,  about  1710,  Ger- 
mans whom  Governor  Hunter  planned  to  colonize  in  Livingston 
Manor.  Dissatisfied  with  their  treatment,  the  colonists  "trekked" 
to  the  valley  of  the  Schoharie,  only  to  find  that  the  lands  on  which 
they  had  settled  were  claimed  by  the  avaricious  landlords.  Once 
more,  therefore,  they  dispersed,  many  going  northward  to  the 
Mohawk,  where  they  formed  pioneer  communities  of  independent, 
democratic  farmer  folk."  Pennsylvania,  however,  received  the 
chief  influx  of  foreign  immigrants,  and  from  there  they  spread  to 
the  colonies  farther  south.  By  1725  thousands  of  German  redemp- 
tioners  and  Scotch-Irish  were  pouring  into  the  colony  every  year. 
The  search  for  unappropriated  lands  carried  them  into  the  interior, 
where  some  of  them  bought  while  the  rest  "squatted,"  declaring 
that  "it  was  against  the  laws  of  God  and  nature  that  so  much  land 
should  lie  idle  while  so  many  christians  wanted  it  to  work  on  and 
to  raise  their  bread."^^  Encountering  the  mountain  ranges,  the 
later  comers,  each  wave  advancing  beyond  its  predecessors,  turned 
southward,  crossed  Maryland,  invaded  Virginia  on  both  sides  of 
the  Blue  Ridge,  and  occupied  the  piedmont  of  the  Carolinas  by  the 
middle  of  the  century.  Swelled  in  volume  by  streams  entering  by 
way  of  Baltimore  and  the  coast  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  this 
German  and  Scotch-Irish  population  with  a  minority  of  English 
intermingled  placed  itself  in  possession  of  the  belt  of  country  be- 
tween the  fall  line  and  the  Alleghanies,  from  the  Mohawk  to  the 
Savannah,  by  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  French  and  Indian 


*  Turner,  "Old  West,"  195-196;  Ballagh,  J.  C,  "The  Land  System  in  the  South,"  in 
Amer.  Hist.  Assn.  Report  for  1897,   110. 

^  Germans  from  the  Rhine  Valley  had  played  a  considerable  part  in  the  colonization  of 
Pennsylvania  in  the  early  days  of  Penn's  experiment,  but  the  similarity  between  their  religious 
views  and  those  of  the  Quakers,  together  with  the  broad  tolerance  of  the  proprietor's  govern- 
ment, had  made  for  a  ready  assimilation.  Faust,  A.  B.,  German  Element  in  the  United  States, 
I,  30-52. 

1"  Ibid..  I,  73  et  seq. 

11  Ballagh,  "Land  System  in  the  South,"  112;  Turner,  "Old  West,"  216. 


COLONIAL  ANTECEDENTS  13 

War.^-  Throughout  this  region  the  mean  annual  temperature  is 
about  the  same,  owing  to  the  increasing  elevation  as  one  goes  south- 
ward. Soil  conditions  are  also  similar,  so  that  the  whole  belt  con- 
stitutes a  single  physiographic  province  suitable  throughout  for 
grain  farming  and  stock  raising."  Here  the  settlers  formed  a 
primitive  agricultural  society,  whose  isolated  farmers  cultivated 
small  tracts  instead  of  plantations,  aided  by  their  sons  and  women 
folk  instead  of  slaves,  with  subsistence  in  view  at  first  rather  than 
production  for  a  market." 

Of  all  the  colonies  those  in  New  England  felt  these  differenti- 
ating influences  least.  Apart  from  a  few  Scotch-Irish  settlers  the 
non-English  immigration  touched  this  section  but  slightly,  and  the 
supervision  of  town  planting  by  the  theocratic  governments  car- 
ried along  the  Puritan  social  organization  with  the  expanding 
population  in  a  greater  degree  than  was  true  of  the  coastal  insti- 
tutions of  any  of  the  colonies  south  of  the  Hudson. ^^  Yet  the  regu- 
lations which  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  found  necessary 
in  1631,  governing  the  admission  of  freemen  with  the  right  of  vot- 
ing, give  evidence  that  from  the  very  beginning  of  that  colony 
there  were  among  the  immigrants  many  discordant  spirits  whose 
presence  furnished  the  elements  of  social  cleavage.^^  As  in  the 
case  of  Virginia,  the  story  of  the  expansion  of  New  England  is  the 
story  of  the  geographical  segregation  of  these  inharmonious  ele- 
ments. The  exodus  to  the  Connecticut  Valley  was  the  first  fruit  of 
dissatisfaction  with  the  Massachusetts  order.  In  this  case,  because 
of  the  minor  character  of  the  differences,  the  migration  merely  di- 
vided the  Puritan  population  into  parts  which  remained  essentially 
alike.  But  the  religious  controversies  which  led  to  the  expulsion 
of  Williams  and  Hutchinson  gave  birth  to  a  community  on  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  of  so  different  a  type  from  those  of  Boston  and  Hart- 
ford as  to  cause  its  exclusion  from  the  New  England  Confedera- 


1- Faust,  German  Element,  I,  chaps.  5-8;  Hanna,  C.  A.,  The  Scotch-Irish,  II,  60  et  seq.: 
Greene,  S.  W.,  "Scotch-Irish  in  America,"  in  American  Antiquarian  Society  Proceedings,  X, 
32-70  ;  Kercheval,  S.,  A  History  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  45-B5  ;  Ford,  H.  J.,  The  Scotch-Irish 
in  America,  378-400. 

13  Merriam,  Life  Zones  and  Crop  Zones  of  the  United  States,  United  States  Dept.  of  Agri- 
culture,  Division  of  Biological  Survey,  Bulletin  No.    10,   20-24,   30-86. 

1*  For  a  fuller  description  of  life  in  the  back  settlements,  see  Schaper,  "Sectionalism," 
317  et  seq.;  Bassett,  "Regulators,"  144-148;  Roosevelt,  Th.,  Winning  of  the  West,  I,  101-133; 
Ambler,  Sectionalism,   13-16. 

IB  Osgood,  American  Colonies,  I,  429.  Cf.  regulation  of  parish  organization  in  South 
Carolina,  below,   19. 

»8  Ibid.,  I,  153-155. 


14  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

tion."  Even  with  the  more  discordant  elements  driven  beyond  her 
bounds,  Massachusetts  exhibited  a  movement  parallel  to  that  in 
Virginia,  by  which  the  frontier  became  the  goal  of  that  part  of 
her  people  who  found  themselves  to  be  out  of  adjustment  with  the 
life  of  the  older  parts.  In  a  general  way  the  impelling  forces  be- 
hind the  movement  are  discernible.  The  relative  difficulty  of  ob- 
taining land,  the  disfranchisement  of  the  man  without  property 
after  the  abolition  of  the  religious  test,  and  the  privileged  position 
of  the  Congregational  Church,  alike  invited  the  ambitious  and  ag- 
grieved to  try  their  fortunes  on  a  stage  where  the  action  was 
freer.^^  Especially  was  this  true  after  the  General  Court,  in  the 
second  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century,  relaxed  its  supervision 
over  the  establishment  of  new  towns,  and  even  offered  lands  for  sale 
to  the  highest  bidder  instead  of  restricting  grants  to  groups  of  ap- 
proved character,  as  in  the  earlier  days.  By  these  processes  New 
England,  like  the  southern  colonies,  was  slowly  divided  into  two 
parts,  "the  one  coastal,  and  dominated  by  commercial  interests  and 
the  established  Congregational  churches ;  the  other  a  primitive  agri- 
cultural area,  democratic  in  principle,  and  with  various  sects."  " 

Antagonism  was  the  natural  result  of  the  existence  side  by 
side  of  two  societies  so  diverse  as  those  the  formation  of  which  has 
been  described.^"  There  were  marked  differences  between  the  Puri- 
tan commonwealths  of  New  England  and  the  "Cavalier"  society 


1'  Admission  of  the  Ehode  Island  settlements  was  refused  in  1644  and  again  in  1648  un- 
less they  would  consent  to  annexation  by  Massachusetts  or  Pljrmouth.  It  would  seem  that  the 
ground  on  which  Maine  was  excluded  was  equally  applicable  to  the  settlements  on  Narragansett 
Bay — "because  they  ran  a  different  course  from  us  both  in  their  ministry  and  civil  adminis- 
tration." Ibid.,  I,  399.  Khode  Island  was  thus  a  part  of  the  Massachusetts  frontier,  holding 
much  the  same  relation  to  the  Bay  Colony  that  early  North  Carolina  held  to  Virginia.  In  the 
matter  of  religious  toleration  Rhode  Island  remained  essentially  "frontier,"  but  in  time  it  de- 
veloped a  commercial  aristocracy,  while  its  political  system  imposed  the  usual  disabilities  upon 
the  masses,  besides  some  which  were  not  to  be  found  elsewhere.  In  short,  Rhode  Island  de- 
veloped a  social  class  corresponding  to  the  dominant  class  in  other  coast  regions.  But  its  demo- 
cratic element  remained  strong  and  active,  as  is  shown  by  the  paper  money  legislation  of  the 
Confederation.  Dorr's  Rebellion  of  1842  was  due  to  the  determination  of  the  people  to  endure 
the  remnants  of  the  old  aristocratic  order  no  longer. 

^*  Ibid.,  1,  464-466.  The  struggles  of  commoners  and  non-commoners  over  undivided  town 
lands  seem  to  be  connected  with  the  planting  of  new  towns  on  the  frontier  by  the  discontented. 
Cf.  Turner,  "Old  West,"  191-192. 

1"  Ibid.,   194. 

*°  "In  general  this  took  these  forms:  contests  between  the  property-holding  class  of  the 
coast  and  the  debtor  class  of  the  interior,  where  specie  was  lacking,  and  where  paper  money 
and  a  readjustment  of  the  basis  of  taxation  were  demanded ;  contests  over  defective  or  unjust 
local  government  in  the  administration  of  taxes,  fees,  lands,  and  the  courts  ;  contests  over  un- 
fair apportionment  in  the  legislature,  whereby  the  coast  was  able  to  dominate,  even  when  its 
population  was  in  the  minority ;  contests  to  secure  the  complete  separation  of  church  and  state ; 
and,  later,  contests  over  slavery,  internal  improvements,  and  party  politics  in  general."  Ibid., 
221-222. 


COLONIAL  ANTECEDENTS  16 

of  Old  Virginia  and  her  neighbors ;  and  these  differences  have  be- 
come the  commonplaces  of  historians.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether 
the  contrast  between  the  maritime  and  planting  colonies  is  any 
sharper  than  that  which  distinguished  the  seaboard  from  Maine 
to  Georgia  from  the  interior  along  the  whole  frontier  line.  In  Eng- 
land Congregationalism  and  Episcopacy  had  represented  polities 
sufficiently  diverse  to  cause  civil  war ;  yet  they  had  this  in  common 
in  America,  that  both  embodied  the  principle  of  union  of  church 
and  state.  In  the  interior,  on  the  other  hand,  scores  of  sects  flour- 
ished side  by  side  on  a  plane  of  equality,  tolerating  one  another  if 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  could  not  do  otherwise,  but 
making  common  cause  against  the  establishments."  Between  the 
Anglican  and  Congregational  colonies  moreover  there  was  a  posi- 
tive economic  bond,  for  planting  and  maritime  commerce  were 
natural  allies.  The  New  England  skippers  found  no  inconsiderable 
portion  of  their  cargoes  in  the  staples  of  the  South,  dependent  as 
the  latter  were  upon  the  European  market.  The  alliance  of  these 
interests  dates  back  at  least  to  the  Navigation  Acts  of  the  Restora- 
tion era,  and  appears  in  many  a  political  contest  down  to  the  period 
of  tariff  controversy  in  the  nineteenth  century."  The  tendency  of 
both  ship-owners  and  planters  was  to  depend  upon  foreign  sources 
for  supplies,  devoting  their  energies  to  the  production  and  market- 
ing of  the  great  staple  crops.  The  joint  interest  of  these  coastal 
groups  was  quite  different  from  that  of  the  interior  population.  As 
the  output  of  the  farms  increased  beyond  the  needs  of  the  occupants, 
the  tendency  was  to  convert  the  surplus  into  forms  which  could  be 
readily  marketed  nearby,  rather  than  to  seek  the  foreign  market 
required  by  the  large-scale  operations  of  the  planter.  So  the  back- 
country  settlers  became  "manufacturers"  in  the  contemporary 
sense  of  the  word,  supplying  the  coast  towns  with  homespun  cloth, 
smoked  meats,  and  other  products  of  household  industry  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  affect  the  carrying  trade.  The  imports  of  the  in- 
terior were  slight,  while  in  South  Carolina,  for  illustration,  the  do- 


°i  The  struggle  for  separation  of  church  and  state  lasted  about  half  a  century,  beginning 
in  Virginia  on  the  eve  of  the  Revolution  and  culminating  in  Connecticut  in  1818.  On  Virginia 
see  James,  C.  F.,  Documentary  History  of  the  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Virginia.  The 
struggle  in  Connecticut  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  alliance  of  sects  for  the  common 
purpose.  There  the  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  and  others  united  in  the  Democratic  party,  demand- 
ing a  new  constitution  and  complete  equality  of  denominations.  Johnston,  Alexander,  Connecti- 
cut, 352-355  ;  Hart,  Samuel,  et  al.,  eds.,  Connecticut  as  a  Colony  and  as  a  State,   105-119. 

^-  Cf.  votes  on  tariff  bills  in  1820  and  1824,  on  which  the  representatives  of  the  plant- 
ing and  commercial  regions  joined  in  voting  nay. 


16  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

mestic  supply  of  bread-stuffs  and  meat  afforded  by  the  opening 
of  the  piedmont  farms  relieved  the  colony  of  dependence  upon  ex- 
ternal trade  with  a  consequent  decline  in  its  volume  and  injury 
to  the  shipping  interest.-^ 

The  lack  of  sympathy  between  the  coast  and  interior  is  well 
shown  by  the  history  of  currency  legislation.  The  interior  where 
specie  was  scarce  had  much  more  need  of  a  paper  circulation  on  a 
credit  basis  than  was  felt  by  the  more  developed  coast  region,  but 
the  legislation  of  the  latter  showed  little  regard  for  the  views  and 
needs  of  the  frontier.  During  the  French  and  Indian  Wars  the 
legislatures  provided  for  paper  issues  to  be  retired  later.  The  con- 
traction of  the  volume  of  the  circulating  medium  which  accom- 
panied retirement  was  distasteful  to  the  remote  part  of  the  popu- 
lation, as  it  interfered  with  the  course  of  trade  and  affected  the 
debtor  class  adversely.^*  Throughout  the  second  half  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  pioneer  belt  was  the  region  of  paper  money 
agitation,  and  Shay*s'  Rebellion  is  the  classic  illustration  of  the 
explosive  quality  of  the  discontent  engendered  by  the  denial  of  re- 
lief legislation.25  To  the  distress  which  contraction  caused  in  itself 
was  sometimes  added  injustice  in  the  means  employed  in  redeem- 
ing the  issues  and  in  the  collection  of  taxes.  Thus  in  North  Caro- 
lina the  wealthy  planters  who  controlled  law-making  threw  an 
unfair  burden  in  the  retirement  of  the  issues  of  1760  and  1761  upon 
the  poor  farmers  by  laying  a  poll  tax  for  the  purpose.-^  Other 
taxes  were  payable  in  specie,  which  the  back  settlers  could  not  ob- 
tain without  delays  which  enabled  grasping  officials  to  distrain 
on  property  and  sell  it  for  personal  gain,  through  collusion  with 
friends.-' 

The  system  of  government  everywhere  was  such  as  to  keep  the 
interior  democracies  in  subordination  to  the  coastal  minorities. 
The  settlement  of  the  back  country  was  welcomed  by  the  coast  as 


"'  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"'  319.  Wherever  the  surplus  production  of  a  farming  area 
became  great  enough  to  create  a  pressure  for  a  foreign  market,  the  agricultural  interest  came 
into  a  degree  of  harmony  with  the  maritime.  Cf.  the  support  of  the  constitution  by  the  chief 
areas  of  surplus  production.  The  development  of  the  market  for  food-stuffs  in  the  planting 
areas  created  a  similar  bond  between  the  farmer  and  the  planter.  Neither  bond  was  as  con- 
stant as  that  which  united  the  planter  and  ship-owner. 

"■'  Bassett,   "Regulators,"   154-155. 

25  Wildman,  M.   S.,  Money  Inflation  in  the   United  States,  47-66. 

2«  Bassett,  "Regulators,"  150,  152. 

"Ibid.,  151. 


COLONIAL  ANTECEDENTS  17 

a  protection  against  the  Indians,^^  but  as  the  population  increased 
those  who  were  in  possession  of  power  were  not  inclined  to  risk 
their  vested  interests  by  recognizing  the  right  of  the  inland  ma- 
jority to  rule.  The  nearest  approach  to  equality  was  to  be  found 
in  New  England.  Yet  even  there  the  inland  population  was  made 
up  largely  of  those  elements  which  had  been  unable  to  hold  office 
or  even  to  vote  in  the  communities  from  which  they  had  come,  and 
in  colonies  where  under  the  system  of  town  meetings  it  became 
customary  for  a  few  influential  men  to  hold  a  caucus  to  prearrange 
matters  for  the  mass  of  the  voters, ^^  it  would  be  surprising  to  find 
full  recognition  of  the  equality  of  rights  of  the  frontier  communi- 
ties. By  1776,  at  any  rate,  some  of  the  frontier  towns  were  com- 
plaining of  their  grievances,  as  is  shown  by  petitions  from  the 
New  Hampshire  towns  in  the  Connecticut  River  Valley  objecting 
to  the  lack  of  a  fair  system  of  representation,  and  to  the  property 
qualifications  required  of  members  of  the  council. ^°  Farther  south 
the  new  settlements  were  much  worse  off.  The  Carolina  planters 
who  had  established  their  dominion  east  of  the  pine  belt  dared 
not  share  power  with  the  non-slaveholding  population  to  the  west- 
ward. The  same  was  true  of  the  other  planting  colonies,  and  every- 
where the  fear  of  being  taxed  by  the  "Have-nots"  was  a  bugbear 
to  the  wealthy.  In  Pennsylvania  the  great  influx  of  foreigners,  un- 
familiar with  English  speech  and  governmental  institutions,  threat- 
ened to  engulf  the  original  stock.^^  The  dominant  classes  therefore 
took  pains  to  perpetuate  their  control.  In  England  the  growth  of 
new  centers  of  population  and  the  decline  of  old  ones  unaccompanied 
by  reapportionment  of  representation  in  parliament,  was  producing 
the  glaring  inequities  of  the  "rotten  borough"  system,  and  playing 
into  the  hands  of  the  landed  and  mercantile  aristocracy  which  com- 
posed the  governing  class.  The  aristocracies  of  the  New  World 
shaped  their  political  affairs  in  accord  with  old-world  habit,  if  not 
in  conscious  imitation.   The  ease  of  acquiring  land  in  the  interior 


^*  Cf.  the  Massachusetts  laws  forbidding  inhabitants  of  frontier  towns  to  abandon  them 
during  the  early  Indian  wars.  Turner,  F.  J.,  "The  First  Official  Frontier  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay,"  in  Colonial  Society  of  Mass.  Publications,  XVII,  250,  et  seq. 

-^  Ostrogorski,  M.,  Democracy  and   the  Organization  of  Political  Parties,    II,   3-4. 

3"  Libby,  O.  G.,  The  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Vote  of  the  Thirteen  States  on  the 
Federal  Constitution,  1787-8,  9. 

31  James  Logan,  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  himself  a  Scotch-Irishman,  exclaimed  in 
1725 :  "It  looks  as  if  Ireland  were  to  send  all  her  inhabitants  hither ;  if  they  will  continue 
to  come,  they  will  make  themselves  proprietors  of  the  province."  Quoted  in  Greene,  "Scotch- 
Irish,"  47.  Cf.  Franklin's  apprehensions  concerning  the  German  immigrants :  Bigelow,  John, 
The  Complete  Works  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  II,  233-234,  296-299. 


18  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

rendered  ineffectual  as  a  barrier  against  the  frontier  folk  those 
property  qualifications  on  the  right  of  suffrage  and  office  holding 
by  which  the  mass  of  the  population  had  from  the  beginning,  in  all 
of  the  colonies,  been  excluded  from  participation  in  government, 
and  control  had  been  retained  in  the  hands  of  an  aristocracy  of  the 
well-to-do.^^  Several  new  devices  were  therefore  invented  to  in- 
sure the  continuation  of  minority  rule  as  the  center  of  population 
moved  westward.  In  Pennsylvania,  where  the  county  was  the  unit 
of  representation  in  the  assembly  (as  was  the  case  generally  out- 
side of  New  England),  the  new  communities  were  but  tardily  given 
county  organization  and  then  allowed  only  from  one  to  four  repre- 
sentatives each,  while  the  old  counties — Philadelphia,  Bucks,  and 
Chester — the  home  of  the  "Quaker"  aristocracy,  enjoyed  eight  each. 
To  obtain  this  result  it  was  necessary  to  fix  the  apportionment  ar- 
bitrarily, instead  of  basing  it  either  on  population  or  taxable 
wealth.  In  1760,  on  the  basis  of  population,  the  city  and  the  west- 
ern counties  had  fourteen  members  less  than  their  proportion,  as 
compared  with  Philadelphia  County;  while  on  the  basis  of  taxa- 
tion Bucks  and  Chester  had  six  members  more  than  they  should 
have  had  and  the  city  and  western  counties  twelve  less  than  their 
due.^^  Virginia  safeguarded  minority  rule  equally  well  by  a  some- 
what different  plan.  Although  her  counties  were  quite  uniformly 
allowed  two  delegates  each  in  the  lower  house,  the  new  ones  in  the 
West  were  made  so  large  that  the  two  members  represented  a  much 
more  numerous  constituency  than  did  the  delegates  from  the  tide- 
water counties.^^  Add  to  this  the  practice  of  filling  county  offices 
by  appointment  of  the  governor  and  council,  themselves  holding 
by  royal  appointment,^^  and  it  becomes  evident  that  the  political 
influence  of  the  people  of  the  interior  was  very  small  in  comparison 
with  their  numbers.  In  South  Carolina  the  western  boundaries  of 
the  parishes  (the  units  of  representation)  were  for  a  long  time  left 


'^  At  the  close  of  the  colonial  period  a  freehold  qualification  prevailed  in  seven  colonies  ; 
in  the  other  six  personal  property  was  an  alternative  qualification.  Typical  requirements  were 
a  freehold  of  fifty  acres  or  yielding  an  income  of  forty  shillings  per  annum,  or  personal  prop- 
erty valued  at  forty  or  fifty  pounds.  McKinley,  A.  E.,  The  Suffrage  Franchise  in  the  Thirteen 
English  Colonies  in  America,  480.  In  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  perhaps  sixteen  per  cent, 
of  the  population  were  qualified  electors ;  in  Virginia  and  Rhode  Island,  nine  per  cent. ;  in 
New  York  City,  eight  per  cent.  ;  in  rural  Pennsylvania,  eight  per  cent.  ;  but  in  Philadelphia 
only  two  per  cent.    Ibid.,  487-488. 

''  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement,  44-51. 

3*  Turner,  "Old  West,"  224. 

'^  "Queries  from  ye  Lds  of  Trade  to  Sr  Wm.  Gooch  Govr  of  Virginia  &  his  Answer* 
Abridged,"  in  Virginia  Magazine  of  History,  III,   114  et  aeq. 


COLONIAL  ANTECEDENTS  19 

undetermined,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  up-country  were  thus  con- 
structively represented  by  the  members  chosen  on  the  coast.^^  When 
they  took  the  pains  to  present  themselves  at  the  polling  places  in 
the  eastern  ends  of  the  parishes,  however,  they  were  generally  re- 
fused the  right  to  vote.^^  Provision  was  made  in  1730  by  the  crown 
for  a  group  of  new  settlements  in  the  middle  portion  of  the  colony, 
among  the  inducements  offered  to  settlers  being  parish  organiza- 
tion with  representation  whenever  the  settlement  attained  a  popu- 
lation of  one  hundred  families.  In  fact,  however,  the  dominant 
class  was  able  to  delay  parish  organization  until  the  people  agreed 
to  support  a  parish  church  of  the  Anglican  type,  and  thus  repre- 
sentation and  the  dominant  social  organization  advanced  pa7'i 
passu.^^  The  settled  portion  of  the  middle  region  had  been  provided 
for  after  this  fashion  before  the  Revolution,  but  the  up-country 
had  no  separate  representation  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the 
provincial  congress  of  1775.  The  demand  for  local  government, 
meantime,  was  met  by  extending  the  machinery  of  the  central  gov- 
ernment through  commissions  appointed  by  the  legislature,  and, 
finally,  in  1769,  by  the  creation  of  a  few  judicial  districts  each  with 
its  appointed  sheriff.  All  writs,  however,  originated  in  and  were 
returnable  to  the  Charleston  courts.  Such  as  it  was,  this  constituted 
the  system  of  local  government  in  the  back  settlements  down  to 
the  Revolution.^"  Conditions  in  North  Carolina  were  especially 
grievous.  In  general  her  scheme  of  governing  the  western  settle- 
ments was  like  that  of  Virginia,  but  it  was  worse  in  operation  be- 
cause of  the  corruption  of  the  county  officials  who  exacted  extor- 
tionate fees,  were  suspected  of  collecting  heavier  taxes  than  were 
warranted  by  the  law,  and  undoubtedly  failed  to  make  honest  re- 
turns to  the  public  treasury.^" 

Delays  and  defects  in  the  organization  of  local  government  in 
the  new  settlements  left  the  inhabitants  without  adequate  govern- 
ment protection  against  the  acts  of  the  lawless.  Complaints  to  the 
court  at  Charleston  were  of  little  avail  against  horse  stealing  in 
the  piedmont — a  common  crime  in  the  days  of  disorder  following 
the  French  and  Indian  War.   Owing  to  the  large  size  of  the  coun- 


**  Schaper,   "Sectionalism,"  335. 
37 /bid.,  335,  348. 
88  Ibid.,  329. 
»»76i<£.,  331,  338. 

*"  Bassett,  "Regulators,"  148,  152-154.    See  also  "Documents  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
Regulation  movement,"  in  Amer,  Hist.  Rev.,  XXI,   320-332. 


20  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

ties,  inhabitants  of  Virginia  sometimes  lived  thirty  or  forty  miles 
from  the  parish  church  or  county  court  house.*^  Conditions  in 
Pennsylvania  were  similar.  For  the  payment  of  taxes,  the  transac- 
tion of  business  connected  with  land  titles,  or  the  prosecution  of 
suits,  long  and  difficult  journeys  were  the  customary  fortune  of  the 
people  of  the  interior. 

The  population  which  found  itself  burdened  with  so  many 
disabilities  was  not  of  a  type  to  accept  an  inferior  status  meekly. 
The  Calvinism  of  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  and  of  many  of 
the  German  sects  tended  towards  political  equality,  as  had  been 
shown  in  earlier  times.  Even  under  the  weight  of  a  political  sys- 
tem which  had  the  rigidity  of  many  centuries'  growth,  the  democ- 
racy inherent  in  creeds  which  taught  the  equality  of  men  before 
God  and  the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  the  organized  group  of 
believers  had  produced  an  abortive  "Commonwealth"  in  seventeenth 
century  England.  A  long  stride  was  taken  towards  modern  democ- 
racy when  the  Puritans  transplanted  their  religion  to  New  England, 
where  it  enjoyed  right  of  way  unhampered  by  the  established 
polity  of  an  old  country.*^  But  the  "Bible  Commonwealth"  of  Mas- 
sachusetts developed  a  rigidity  all  its  own,  which  showed  that  it 
was  still  akin  to  the  old-world  system,  and  democracy  first  worked 
itself  free  from  the  incubus  of  European  tradition  upon  the  fron- 
tier. Indeed,  the  frontier  was  the  natural  birthplace  of  democracy. 
The  actual  equality  of  men  under  primitive  conditions  of  life  in- 
evitably begot  the  ideal  of  political  equality.  Like  castaways  upon 
a  desert  island,  the  backwoodsmen  forgot  those  artificial  distinc- 
tions which  had  no  correspondence  with  the  facts  of  their  life. 
While  weary  France  was  hearing  the  first  faint  prophecy  of  revo- 
lution in  the  back-to-nature  call  of  the  philosophers  of  the  ancien 
regime,  the  American  frontier  was  making  a  reality  of  Rousseau's 
dream.^^  The  new  settlements  hardly  needed  to  be  taught  the 
philosophy  of  the  rights  of  man  which  was  about  to  play  so  great 
a  part  in  revolutions  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  During  the  con- 
test with  the  mother  country  the  united  colonies  not  only  adapted 


<i  Turner,  "Old  West,"  224.  Cf.  conditions  in  South  Carolina  as  presented  in  the  peti- 
tion of  the  Calhouns  and  others:  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  335. 

*-  Borgeaud,  Charles,  The  Rise  of  Modern  Democracy. 

*^  Rousseau's  Discours  sur  les  arts  et  les  sciences  was  published  in  1749.  It  lauded  the 
"state  of  nature"  as  the  happiest  state  of  man.  It  was  this  essay  which  Voltaire  said  made 
him  wish  to  go  upon  "all-fours."  The  Central  Social,  which  followed  after  a  dozen  years,  and 
was  the  work  which  most  influenced  the  French  Revolution,  stressed  the  absolute  and  inalienable 
sovereignty  of  the  people. 


•  COLONIAL  ANTECEDENTS  21 

Locke's  philosophy  to  their  own  purposes  in  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence, but  the  frontier  offered  its  own  elaboration  of  the  Eng- 
lishman's thought  in  the  "squatter  sovereignty"  doctrine  of  Jeffer-  ^ 
son:  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  British  dominions  who  colonized 
America  "possessed  a  right  which  nature  has  given  to  all  men,  of 
departing  from  the  country  in  which  chance,  not  choice,  has  placed 
them ;  of  going  in  quest  of  new  habitations,  and  of  there  establish- 
ing new  societies,  under  such  laws  and  regulations  as  to  them  shall 
seem  most  likely  to  promote  public  happiness."" 

Men  of  such  ideals  would  not  brook  the  unfair  control  of  the 
coast.  And  yet  this  control  was  in  most  respects  merely  nominal. 
Although  deprived  of  local  government  in  the  legal  sense  and  al- 
lowed but  little  participation  in  general  legislation  in  their  respec- 
tive provinces,  the  frontiersmen  none  the  less  regulated  the  greater 
part  of  the  concerns  of  their  everyday  lives.  This  liberty  and  self- 
reliance  made  them  the  more  impatient  at  the  shortcomings  and  in- 
justices of  the  legal  authorities.  Bacon's  Rebellion  has  already  been 
alluded  to  as  an  evidence  of  the  early  discontent  of  the  Virginia 
frontier,  the  trouble  being  started  in  that  historic  episode  by 
Bacon's  taking  matters  into  his  own  hands  and  proceeding  against 
the  Indians  without  the  commission  of  the  authorities.  After  the 
French  and  Indian  War,  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  interior  found 
expression  in  numerous  petitions  complaining  of  the  lack  of  ade- 
quate local  government,  of  the  remoteness  of  the  courts  and 
churches,  and  of  the  inequities  in  the  systems  of  taxation  and  rep- 
resentation.*^ But,  characteristically,  the  aggrieved  men  did  not 
await  the  slow  and  uncertain  action  of  government  in  matters 
which  they  could  deal  with  themselves,  and  where  the  machinery  of 
government  proved  ineffectual  to  check  lawlessness,  as  in  South 
Carolina,  organized  bands  of  "regulators"  dealt  summarily  with 
the  offenders.  Such  initiative  was  mistaken  by  the  eastern  gentry 
for  mob  violence,  and  served  to  heighten  the  mutual  distrust  of  the 


*■•  Jefferson,  T.,  A  Summary  View  of  the  rights  of  British  America,  reprinted  in  Ameri- 
can History  Leaflet,  No.  11.    Revised  form  in  Ford,  P.  L.,  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  I,  427. 

*5  The  South  Carolinians  repeatedly  petitioned  for  local  government  and  representation 
between  1752  and  1770.  Notable  among  these  petitions  was  one  of  1768,  signed  by  the  Cal- 
houns  and  others,  asking  for  proper  division  of  the  parishes,  for  courts,  schools,  churches,  and 
the  rights  of  British  subjects.  They  complained  that  they  were  200  miles  from  the  parish 
church.  The  memorial  was  referred  to  a  committee,  which  reported  that  three-fourths  of  the 
white  population  of  the  colony  was  in  the  back  settlements,  and  recommended  the  organization 
of  new  parishes  with  representation.  No  action  followed.  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  335.  In 
1764  the  Pennsylvania  frontiersmen  made  similar  demands,  including  an  equitable  adjustment 
of  apportionment.    Hanna,  Scotch-Irish,  I,  63.    For  Virginia  see  Ambler,  Sectionalism,  4-5. 


22  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

upland  and  tidewater.*®  In  North  Carolina  the  regulation  move- 
ment took  the  form  of  an  attack  upon  the  abuses  in  the  tax  and  fee 
systems,  and  brought  the  democracy  into  a  contest  with  the  govern- 
ing class  which  ended  in  armed  conflict.*^  In  Virginia  the  democ- 
racy found  its  leaders  in  men  of  some  social  standing  but  of  west- 
ern birth,  under  whom  it  began  to  undermine  the  foundations  of 
the  aristocracy  by  its  attacks  upon  the  church  establishment  and 
the  system  of  primogeniture  and  entail.*^ 

2.   The  Revolutionary  Period 

Thus  at  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  era  a  well-defined 
contest  was  in  progress  between  the  coast  and  the  interior,  the  for- 
mer representing  the  minority  who  wished  to  maintain  the  status 
quo  in  industry  and  government,  and  the  latter  the  cause  of  the 
people.  In  its  early  stages  this  contest  was  a  struggle  of  the  back 
settlers  of  each  colony  against  the  dominant  class — a  series  of  iso- 
lated contests,  for  it  was  a  time  when  intercolonial  relations  were 
still  slight.  But  the  common  characteristics  of  the  frontier  through- 
out its  extent  and  the  similarity  of  the  grievances  complained  of  by 
the  frontiersmen  everywhere  were  a  prophecy  of  cleavage  on  a 
continental  scale  in  the  days  of  national  unification.  The  Revolu- 
tion, indeed,  afforded  occasion  for  the  first  interprovincial  align- 
ment— Whigs  and  Loyalists — but  the  issues  arising  from  British 
relations  served  to  obscure  somewhat  the  workings  of  the  older 
antagonisms,  although  the  revolutionary  movement  is  itself  a  phase 
of  the  contest  which  we  are  tracing.*^  The  essays  written  in  de- 
fence of  colonial  rights  were  filled  with  a  philosophy  of  popular 
government  which  was  equally  hostile  to  the  British  system  of  ad- 
ministration and  to  the  domination  of  the  provincial  aristocracies. 
The  Whig  philosophy  fell  in  exactly  with  the  ideals  of  the  frontier 
democracy,  and  the  Revolution  and  the  democratic  movement  be- 


*•  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  334-336.  It  was  the  regulation  movement  which  led  to  the 
division  of  the  up-country  into  judicial  districts.    Above,  19. 

*'  Bassett,  "Regulators." 

*8  Ambler,  Sectionalism,  5,  32-41  ;  Hunt,  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assn.  Report  for  1901,  I,  163-171 ; 
James,  Documentary  Hist. 

*^  To  some  extent  the  former  antagonists  made  common  cause  in  the  Revolution,  yet 
where  popular  leaders  headed  the  movement  against  England,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  the  aristo- 
crats tended  towards  Toryism,  while  the  reverse  was  true  where  the  aristocrats  led,  as  in  North 
Carolina ;  there  many  of  the  Regulators  became  Loyalists.  These  facts  in  themselves  indicate 
that  the  old  antagonism  cut  deeper  than  the  issue  between  the  colonies  and  England. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  2S 

came  identified  in  no  small  measure. ^°  The  frontier  farmers  found 
allies  in  the  hitherto  disfranchised  classes  in  the  coast  towns,  who 
suddenly  became  of  political  weight  through  the  frequent  resort  to 
mass  meetings  and  other  extra-legal  organs  representing  the  whole 
people. ^^  The  latitude  of  the  Continental  Congress  in  admitting 
state  delegates  appointed  by  such  irregular  bodies,  and  in  recom- 
mending the  "assemblies  and  conventions"  in  states  "where  no  gov- 
ernment sufficient  to  the  exigencies  of  their  affairs  hath  been 
hitherto  established,  to  adopt  such  government  as  shall,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  best  conduce  to  the 
happiness  and  safety  of  their  constituents,"  gave  aid  and  comfort 
to  the  cause  of  democracy.^-  New  leaders  arose  who  relied  upon 
the  people  in  carrying  forward  the  patriot  cause ;  aristocrats  ceased 
to  attend  meetings  where  they  were  "sure  to  be  outvoted  by  men  of 
the  lowest  order;"  while  the  Pendletons  and  Randolphs  and  Gallo- 
ways doubted  whether  insurgent  radicalism  were  not  a  graver 
danger  than  British  rule."  In  Pennsylvania  the  reluctance  of  the 
moderates  like  Dickinson,  Morris,  and  Wilson,  to  resort  to  ex- 
treme measures  against  England  served  to  throw  control  into  the 
hands  of  the  radicals  who  led  the  Scotch-Irish  and  German  democ- 
racy of  the  inland  counties  and  the  Philadelphia  proletariat,  and 
to  deprive  the  moderates  of  influence  in  fram.ing  the  first  state 
constitution.  The  result  was  a  most  democratic  scheme  of  govern* 
ment,  drawn  up  by  the  radicals  with  the  support  of  solid  delega- 
tions from  the  western  counties.^*  In  South  Carolina  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  was  inaugurated  in   Charleston  by  means  of 


so  "With  the  intense  preaching  of  majority  rule  and  the  emphasis  placed  on  the  individual 
....  the  arguments  which  had  been  used  against  English  misrule  were  turned  against  minority 
control  and  misgovernment  ....  and  a  colonial  revolution  accompanied  and  supported  the 
international  movement."  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement,  13-14.  What  was  true  of  Penn- 
sylvania was  true  in  a  measure  throughout  the  colonies. 

^1  Beard  treats  the  proletariat  of  the  towns  as  politically  non-existent  in  the  period  of 
the  framing  of  the  constitution.  Economic  Interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  24-26.  The  fact 
shows  how  the  popular  cause  miscarried  in  the  Revolution,  for  their  influence  was  marked  in 
the  earlier  period.  See  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement,  159-180  et  passim;  Schaper,  "Sec- 
tionalism," 357  ;  Becker,  Political  Parties,  275  et  passim.  In  a  contest  for  equal  political 
rights  the  working  class  of  the  towns  was  the  natural  ally  of  the  farmer,  but  the  dependent 
position  of  the  employes  tended  to  tie  them  to  their  employers.  Cf.  the  support  of  the  consti- 
tution by  the  Boston  mechanics,  whose  economic  welfare  was  involved  in  the  prosperity  of 
shipping.    Bradford,  A.,  History  of  Massachusetts,  III,  22. 

*2  Resolution  of  May  15,  1776.  Journals  of  the  Contiyiental  Congress  (L.  C.  edn.),  IV, 
342,  358.  Cf.  resolution  of  Nov.  4,  1775 :  "That  if  the  Convention  of  South  Carolina  shall  find 
it  necessary  to  establish  a  form  of  government  in  that  colony,  it  be  recommended  to  that 
Convention  to  call  a  full  and  free  representation  of  the  people."     [Italics  mine.]    Id.,   Ill,   326. 

S3  Becker,  C.  L.,  Beginnings  of  the  American  People,  243-245  ;  Ambler,  Sectionalism,   17-27. 

"  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement,  277  et  eeq. 


24  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

mass  meetings  in  which  the  popular  element  controlled.  A  gen- 
eral committee  chosen  by  the  mass  meeting  summoned  the  Provin- 
cial Congress  of  1775,  because  it  felt  the  need  of  the  support  of  a 
body  representing  the  entire  colony.  In  this  body  the  back  settle- 
ments as  such  were  for  the  first  time  allowed  representation." 
In  New  York  likewise  and  probably  elsewhere  the  influence  of  the 
unfranchised  was  considerable  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, while  extra-legal  machinery  was  being  made  use  of  to  perfect 
the  Whig  organization.^*^ 

But  the  promise  of  a  great  forward  movement  towards  democ- 
racy in  government  and  equal  rights  for  the  inland  population 
was  hardly  fulfilled  by  the  outcome  of  the  Revolution.  The  forces 
of  conservatism  were  too  strongly  entrenched  and  too  many  of  the 
Whig  leaders  were  conservatives.  ''The  liberty  for  which  they  had 
fought  .  .  .  was  the  sober,  intelligent,  fearless  liberty  of  our  Eng- 
lish ancestors,"  not  the  rule  of  "King  Numbers.""  The  advance 
towards  popular  government  which  the  period  brought  may  be 
measured  by  comparing  the  provisions  of  the  state  constitutions 
adopted  during  the  war  with  the  arrangements  obtaining  in  the 
several  provinces  immediately  preceding  the  struggle.  The  accept- 
ance of  democratic  theory  is  notable.  But  bills  of  rights,  declara- 
tions that  the  people  are  sovereign,  and  expositions  of  the  compact 
theory  do  not  hide  the  fact  that  the  chief  change  in  practice  is  the 
substitution  of  the  authority  of  the  assembly  for  that  of  the  crown, 
while  the  assembly  represents  a  constituency  not  much  changed, 
taking  the  country  as  a  whole,  by  extensions  of  the  franchise  or 
reforms  in  the  apportionment  of  representation.  For  example,  the 
Virginia  constitution  of  1776  was  a  compromise  in  which  the  bill 
of  rights,  drawn  by  Mason,  the  leader  of  the  interior,  represented 
the  frontier  contribution.  Its  principles  "were  those  which  Henry 
had  instilled  into  the  minds  of  the  frontier  people;  they  were  the 
principles  which  had  mastered  the  minds  of  Jefferson  and  Madi- 
son." ^*  But  in  the  working  provisions  of  the  instrument  the  con- 
servatives triumphed.  While  the  upper  house  became  elective,  the 
right  of  suffrage  in  the  election  of  members  of  both  houses  re- 


^^  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  357-359. 

**  Becker,  Political  Parties,  275  et  passim. 

6"  Lodge,  H.  C,  Life  of  George  Cabot,  421.  "Families  like  the  Otises  who  joined  the 
patriot  cause  abandoned  none  of  their  conservative  principles.  They  fought  for  independence 
from  Great  Britain,  not  independence  from  government  and  social  restraint." — Morison,  S.  E., 
Life  of  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  I,  49. 

'^  Ambler,  Sectionalism,  28. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  25 

mained  as  before,  and  there  was  no  provision  for  uniformity  in  the 
size  of  the  county  units  of  representation,  for  reapportionment,  for 
extension  of  the  suffrage,  for  election  of  local  officials,  or  even  for 
amendment.^'*  Jefferson,  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia,  written  a  few 
years  later,  pointed  out  that  under  the  apportionment  of  1780 
nineteen  thousand  men  living  below  the  falls  of  the  rivers  "give 
law  to  upwards  of  thirty  thousand  living  in"  other  parts  of  the 
state,  "and  appoint  all  their  chief  officers,  executive  and  judici- 
ary." "^  In  New  Jersey  the  right  to  vote  had  been  limited  to  free- 
holders before  the  Revolution,  while  the  new  constitution  granted 
it  to  all  inhabitants  who  were  "worth  fifty  pounds  proclamation 
money."  "  In  South  Carolina,  where  the  recognition  of  the  inte- 
rior in  the  provincial  congress  of  1775  gave  some  promise  of  redress 
of  grievances,  only  forty  members  in  a  total  of  184  were  allowed  to 
the  up-country,  although  it  had  the  majority  of  the  white  popula- 
tion; and  the  planters  manipulated  the  elections  so  skilfully  that 
"influential  gentlemen"  of  English  blood  were  chosen  in  every  in- 
stance, no  Scotch-Irish  or  German  name  appearing  on  the  list  of 
delegates.*^^  The  temporary  constitution  of  1776  allowed  eighteen 
additional  members  to  the  upland,  but  the  suffrage  requirement 
remained  unchanged,  except  for  the  additional  qualification  that 
the  requisite  amount  of  property  must  be  possessed  debt-free.  Two 
years  later  the  property  restrictions  were  slightly  reduced,  and, 
probably  under  the  influence  of  current  political  philosophy,  a 
fair  promise  was  given  that  a  new  apportionment  should  be  made 
periodically,  "according  to  the  particular  and  comparative  strength 
and  taxable  property  of  the  different  parts" — a  promise  the  ful- 
fillment of  which  was  long  delayed. •'^ 

The  political  philosophy  of  the  Revolution  is  nowhere  better 
set  forth  than  in  the  Massachusetts  constitution  of  1780:  "The 
body  politic  is  formed  by  a  voluntary  Association  of  individuals: 
it  is  a  social  compact,  by  which  the  whole  people  covenants  with 
each  citizen,  and  each  with  the  whole  people,  that  all  shall  be  gov- 


s' Poore,  B.  P.,  The  Federal  and  State  Constitutions,  Colonial  Charters,  and  other  Organic 
Laws  of  the  United  States,  II,  1910-1912  ;  Ambler,  Sectionalism,  30.  Cf.  the  democratic  provi- 
sions of  Jefferson's  draft  constitution  of  this  year,  covering  inheritance,  land  holding,  suffrage, 
apportionment,  amendment  of  the  constitution,  and  religious  liberty ;  Ford,  Writings  of  Jefferson, 
II,  7.  See  discussion  of  this  draft  by  Ford  in  the  Nation  for  August  7,  1890,  and  by  D.  R. 
Anderson  in  Amer.  Hist.  Rev.,  XXI,  750^754. 

«o  Ford,  Writings  of  T.  J.,  Ill,  223. 

81  Art.  IV.    Poore,  Constitutions,  II,  1311. 

82  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  357-359. 
"/6id.,  865,  367-869. 


26  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

erned  by  certain  laws  for  the  common  good."  ^*  "The  people  alone 
have  an  incontestible,  unalienable,  and  indefeasible  right  to  insti- 
tute government,  and  to  reform,  alter,  or  totally  change  the  same, 
vi^hen  their  protection,  safety,  prosperity,  and  happiness  require 
it."''^  Yet  the  clause  covering  suffrage  restricts  the  right  to  vote 
to  owners  of  a  freehold  of  the  annual  value  of  three  pounds,  or 
other  estate  worth  sixty  pounds.*^^  The  New  York  constitution, 
drafted  by  John  Jay,  "was  a  special  adaptation  of  the  provincial 
government,  with  as  few  modifications  as  the  circumstances  re- 
quired." '•'  The  preamble  recited  that  "All  power  whatever  [in  the 
state]  hath  reverted  to  the  people  thereof,"  from  whom  alone,  ac- 
cording to  section  one,  authority  is  derived  ;^^  but  the  freehold 
qualifications  for  voting  and  ofRce-holding  were  retained,*^^  for  it 
was  "a  favorite  maxim  with  Mr.  Jay,  that  those  who  own  the  coun- 
try ought  to  govern  it."  "°  There  was  no  provision  for  amendment, 
and  Jay  congratulated  himself  that  the  conservatives  had  succeeded 
in  providing  a  "measurably  centralized  and  measurably  aristo- 
cratic" government."^  Even  in  Pennsylvania,  following  the  demo- 
cratic triumph  of  1776,  the  conservatives  carried  on  a  campaign 
for  constitutional  revision  so  successfully  that  a  modified  consti- 
tution was  adopted  in  1790  "after  a  decade  of  personal  and  party 


'*  Preamble,  Poore,  ConstiUitions,  I,  956-957. 

«6  Part  I,  Art.  VII.    Ibid.,  I,  958. 

"9  Part  II,  Chap.  I,  Sec.  2,  Art.  II ;  Sec.  3,  Art.  IV.  Ibid.  The  draft  constitution  of  1778 
had  been  rejected  by  the  voters  in  town  meetings  chiefly  because  of  the  lack  of  a  bill  of  rights 
which  should  "describe  the  Natural  Rights  of  Man  as  he  inherits  them  from  the  Great  Parents 
of  Nature,  distinguishing  those,  the  Controul  of  which  he  may  part  with  to  Society  for  Social 
Benefits  from  those  he  cannot ;"  for  lack  of  any  mode  of  amendment ;  and  for  inequalities  in 
the  apportionment  of  representation.  (Cf.  grievances  of  back  country  of  New  England,  above, 
14.)  Gushing,  H.  A.  History  of  the  Transition  frotn  Provincial  to  Commonwealth  Government 
in  Massachusetts,  216,  219  (in  Columbia  University  Studies,  VII).  The  best  critique  of  the 
draft  of  1778  was  the  so-called  "Essex  Result,"  which  set  forth  the  principles  of  government 
on  which  the  constitution  of  1780  was  later  based.  It  was  an  admirable  statement  of  the 
political  philosophy  of  the  Revolutionary  period,  yet  it  held  that  the  law-making  majority 
should  include  those  "who  possess  a  major  part  of  the  property  in  the  state."  Ibid.,  223-224. 
In  framing  the  constitution  of  1780,  the  draft,  including  the  bill  of  rights,  was  made  by  John 
Adams.  In  the  committee  of  which  he  was  a  member  he  was  supported  by  Bowdoin,  Gushing, 
Parsons,  and  others,  but  opposed  at  some  points  by  "divers  members  ....  who  wished  for 
what  was  termed  a  more  popular  government" — probably  a  reference  to  Samuel  Adams.  Ibid., 
235,  and  /.  n.    On  John  Adams,  see  below,  35,  /.  n.  103. 

«"  Pellew,  G.,  John  Jay,  69. 

•8  Poore,   Constitutions,   II,  1332. 

•»  Sec.  VII ;  ibid.,  1S34. 

">  Jay,  William,  The  Life  of  John  Jay,  I,  70. 

'^  Backer,  Political  Parties,  275,  276,  et  yasaim.    The  phrase  is  Becksr's. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  27 

struggles  hardly  equalled  for  intensity  and  bitterness  in  any 
period  of  our  national  or  local  history."  ^^ 

In  brief,  in  the  contest  between  aristocracy  and  democracy, 
the  coast  and  the  interior,  in  the  Revolutionary  period,  the  old 
order  held  its  own.  The  peace  with  England  rather  intensified 
than  healed  the  domestic  discord,  by  eliminating  questions  which 
had  confused  the  main  issue,  and  the  people  of  the  interior  con- 
tinued their  contest  for  equal  rights  under  the  government  of  the 
United  States.  By  1784  the  upland  party  in  South  Carolina  was 
pressing  for  a  reapportionment  as  promised  by  the  constitution  of 
1778.  They  succeeded  in  bringing  about  the  meeting  of  a  conven- 
tion in  which  they  urged  the  doctrines  of  Locke  and  the  French 
philosophers  in  support  of  the  demand  for  equal  representation; 
but  the  low  country  was  represented  on  the  same  basis  as  that 
which  prevailed  in  the  existing  legislature,  and  thus  was  able  to 
prevent  any  real  reform  in  the  constitution  of  1790.^^  Not  until 
1808,  when  the  expansion  of  the  plantation  economy  foreshadowed 
the  extinction  of  the  old  sectionalism  within  the  state,  did  the  low 
country  party  agree  to  surrender  control  of  the  lower  house  to  the 
up-country  majority,  now  no  longer  dangerous.^*  A  solution  was 
not  so  easily  reached  in  Virginia;  in  fact,  the  discordant  eastern 
and  western  portions  of  that  state  remained  unequally  yoked  to- 
gether until  the  Civil  War.  In  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  else- 
where, the  advent  of  manhood  suffrage  was  delayed  until  well  along 
in  the  nineteenth  century." 

But  the  further  history  of  sectional  struggles  within  the 
states  does  not  concern  us,  for  our  purpose  has  been  to  show  that 
the  two  rival  societies  which  had  developed  in  the  several  colonies 
formed  the  basis  of  the  first  party  divisions  on  a  continental  scale. 

3.   Rise  of  the  Federalist  and  Republican  Parties 

The  period  of  the  Confederation  saw  a  renewal  of  the  demand 
for  paper  money  issues.  The  small  farmers  had  suffered  greatly 
from  the  war,  and  at  its  close  found  themselves  a  debtor  class  at 
a  time  when  the  drainage  of  specie  in  payment  of  foreign  trade 


■^2  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement,  287.  See  Cuahinjr,  247  et  seq.,  foot  notes,  for  •xtracte 
from  state  constitutions  relative  to  compact  theory,  etc. 

"  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  369-379. 

■*  Ibid.,   407-437. 

■'^  See  sketch  of  the  progress  of  constitutional  revision  by  states  in  McMaBtsr,  J.  B., 
Hittory  of  th«  People  of  the  United  States,  V,  373-394. 


28  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

balances  caused  sharp  alterations  in  the  value  of  money  and  the 
burdens  of  debt.  The  paper  money  party  was  especially  strong  in 
the  interior,  as  usual,  where  specie  was  always  scarce,  and  where 
the  people  identified  their  creditors  with  the  class  which  had  so 
long  dominated  in  government — the  coastal  merchants,  planters, 
and  money-lenders,  with  their  friends  the  lawyers  and  judges. 
Along  with  the  contest  for  political  rights,  therefore,  went  a  strug- 
gle for  relief  laws,  the  denial  of  which  embittered  the  farmer  of 
the  Berkshires  towards  his  oppressors  as  much  as  unjust  appor- 
tionment did  his  southern  brother.  The  excesses  of  the  paper  money 
party  were  sporadic  and  it  was  without  interstate  organization, 
but  the  outbreaks  were  symptoms  of  a  popular  disregard  for  prop- 
erty rights,  which,  in  a  time  of  relaxed  respect  for  authority,  due  to 
the  war  and  the  philosophy  by  which  it  was  justified,  was  to  the 
conservatives  one  of  the  most  alarming  aspects  of  that  critical 
period.''^  The  prevalent  "excess  of  democracy"  was  one  of  the  im- 
portant factors,  therefore,  in  shaping  opinion  in  favor  of  a  "more 
perfect  union;"  the  movement  for  the  constitution  was  the  work 
of  conservative  reactionaries.  "Their  creed,"  wrote  Henry  Knox 
to  Washington,  speaking  of  the  Shays  rebels,  "is,  that  the  property 
of  the  United  States  has  been  protected  from  the  confiscation  of 
Britain  by  the  joint  exertions  of  all;  and  therefore  ought  to  be  the 
common  property  of  all;  and  he  that  attempts  opposition  to  this 
creed,  is  an  enemy  to  equity  and  justice,  and  ought  to  be  swept  from 
off  the  face  of  the  earth."  "They  are  determined  to  annihilate  all 
debts,  public  and  private,  and  have  agrarian  laws,  which  are  easily 
affected  by  the  means  of  unfunded  paper  money,  which  shall  be  a 
tender  in  all  cases  whatever."  "  At  which  Washington  exclaimed : 
"What  stronger  evidence  can  be  given  of  the  want  of  energy  in  our 
government,  than  these  disorders?  If  there  is  not  power  in  it  to 
check  them,  what  security  has  a  man  for  life,  liberty,  or  property  ? 
....  The  consequences  of  a  lax  or  inefficient  government  are  too 
obvJous  to  be  dwelt  upon.  Thirteen  sovereignties  pulling  against 
each  other,  and  all  tugging  at  the  federal  head,  will  soon  bring  ruin 
on  the  whole;  whereas  a  liberal  and  energetic  constitution,  well 
guarded  and  closely  watched  to  prevent  encroachments,  might  re- 
store us  to  that  degree  of  respectability  and  consequence,  to  which 


''^  See  the  discussion  by  McLaughlin,  A.  C,  The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution, 
138-167. 

'^  Quoted  by  Washington  in  letter  to  Madison,  Nov.  6,  1786.  Ford,  W.  C,  Writingi  of 
Georg*  Wa»hington,  XI,  81. 


RISE  OF  PARTIES  29 

we  had  a  fair  claim  and  the  brightest  prospect  of  attaining."  ^^ 
Washington  desired  a  new  government,  moreover,  in  order  that 
the  national  character  might  be  retrieved  through  just  provisions 
for  the  public  creditors. 

The  paths  which  led  from  the  Articles  to  the  Constitution 
were  doubtless  several.  There  was,  indeed,  the  influence  of  those'^ 
great  and  unselfish  minds  who  regarded  the  fact  that  the  honor  and 
safety  of  all  were  endangered  by  the  weakness  of  the  union;  but 
very  potent  also  was  the  growing  conviction  of  the  ruling  class  that 
the  protection  of  commerce,  the  payment  of  the  public  debt,  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  obligation  of  contracts,  in  all  of  which  its 
interests  were  peculiarly  great,  could  be  secured  only  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  government  vested  with  plenary  power  over  com- 
merce and  revenue,  and  able,  through  limitations  on  the  powersj 
of  states,  to  impose  checks  upon  the  license  of  the  radicals.  "I  con- 
ceive," said  Fisher  Ames,  in  the  light  of  his  experience  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts ratifying  convention,  "that  the  present  Constitution 
was  dictated  by  commercial  necessity  more  than  any  other 
cause."  ■^^  Hamilton  attributed  much  to  the  influence  of  the  holders 
of  the  public  paper.  "The  public  creditors,  who  consisted  of  various 
descriptions  of  men,  a  large  proportion  of  them  very  meritorious 
and  very  influential,"  he  declared  after  the  establishment  of  the 
new  government,  "had  had  a  considerable  agency  in  promoting 
the  adoption  of  the  new  Constitution,  for  this  peculiar  reason, 
among  the  many  weighty  reasons  which  were  common  to  them  as 
citizens  and  proprietors,  that  it  exhibited  the  prospect  of  a  gov-a 
ernment  able  to  do  justice  to  their  claims."  ''  And  of  the  conserva- 
tive class  in  general  he  adds :  "There  was  also  another  class  of  men, 
and  a  very  weighty  one,  who  had  had  great  share  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Constitution,  who  though  not  personally  interested 
in  the  debt,  considered  maxims  of  public  credit  as  of  the  essence 
of  good  government,  as  intimately  connected  by  the  analogy  and 
sympathy  of  principles  with  the  security  of  property  in  general, 
and  as  forming  an  inseparable  portion  of  the  great  system  of  po- 
litical order."  " 

The  convention  which  framed  the  Constitution  was  composed 
almost  wholly  of  friends  of  the  movement,  chosen  by  legislatures 


"  Ibid. 

'*  Quoted  by   Beard,   C.   A.,   EconowAc  Origins  of   Jeffersonian   Democracy,    7. 

^^  Ibid.,  6-6. 

«i  Ibid. 


\ 
\ 


30  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

which  represented  property  owners.  The  issue  of  a  convention 
.  had  not  been  before  the  voters  in  the  legislative  elections,  and  the 
intelligence  and  influence  of  the  promoters  procured  the  selection 
of  delegates  almost  exclusively  representative  of  the  planting,  mer- 
cantile, professional,  and  other  wealthy  groups  of  the  seaboard. ^^ 
"Not  one  member  represented  in  his  immediate  personal  economic 
interests  the  small  farming  or  mechanic  classes."  ^^  Naturally  a 
body  so  constituted  provided  for  a  national  government  similar  to 
those  which  their  class  had  already  set  up  in  the  states.  One  would 
not  expect  to  find  that  in  such  a  body  any  proposal  was  made  to 
gfve  a  share  in  the  new  government  to  portions  of  the  population 
not  already  enfranchised  in  the  separate  states.  A  few  members, 
notably  Wilson  and  Madison,  would  have  extended  the  functions 
of  the  voters  so  far  as  to  include  the  election  of  president  and  sen- 
ators, as  well  as  members  of  the  lower  house,^*  but  the  prevailing 
sentiment  favored  limitations  upon  the  mass  of  voters  such  as  were 
already  in  effect  in  the  states.  The  provisions  for  the  election  of 
senators  by  state  legislatures  and  of  the  president  by  an  electoral 
college  are  familiar  illustrations  of  the  aristocratic  temper  of  the 
fathers  of  the  constitution.  Even  Mason,  who  as  leader  of  the  in- 
terior democracy  had  framed  the  Virginia  bill  of  rights  a  few 
years  before,  joined  in  approval  of  these  devices.  He  believed  that 
"one  important  object  in  constituting  the  senate  was  to  secure  the 
rights  of  property,"  and  supported  a  term  of  six  years  and  a  prop- 
erty qualification  to  give  the  members  of  the  upper  branch  due 
weight.^^  "He  conceived  it  would  be  as  unnatural  to  refer  the  choice 
of  a  proper  character  for  Chief  Magistrate  to  the  people,  as  it 
would,  to  refer  a  trial  of  colors  to  a  blind  man."  ^^  Some  of  the 
members  considered  popular  choice  even  of  the  lower  house  as 
too  democratic.  Thus  Sherman  insisted  that  "the  people  should 
have  as  little  to  do  as  may  be  about  the  government  immediately. 


**  Beard,  Eeonomie  Interpretation,  71-72.  Cf.  the  contemporary  interpretation  of  the 
movement  for  the  constitution,  in  letter  of  the  French  Minister  Otto  to  Vergennes,  Oct.  10, 
1786  :  Bancroft,  G.,  History  of  the  Formation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  II,  App., 
399-401  ;   reprinted   in  Hart,   A.   B.,   American   History   told   by   Contemporaries,    III,    185-187. 

**  Beard,  Economic  Interpretation,  149. 

•*  Farrand,  Max,  Records  of  the  Federal  Convention  of  1787,   1,   68,   154;  II,  56,   111. 

^^Ihid.,  I,  428.    Cf.  Madison,  421-423. 

■•  Ihid..  n,  31. 


RISE  OF  PARTIES  31 

They  want  information  and  are  constantly  liable  to  be  misled."  " 
Gerry,  Charles  Pinckney,  and  others  expressed  similar  views.** 

This  distrust  of  the  people  was  not  expressed  with  reference 
to  the  disfranchised  class,  but  to  the  farmers  and  other  owners  of 
small  properties  who  belonged  to  the  voting  class.  The  more  lib- 
eral members  believed  that  the  qualified  electorate  was  a  suflficient 
safeguard  of  the  public  interest,*^  but  many  desired  to  impose 
qualifications  upon  office  holders  as  well.  The  convention  voted  in 
favor  of  the  principle  but  was  unable  to  agree  upon  a  statement  of 
the  provision. ^°  However,  the  choice  of  senators  by  state  legisla- 
tures was  felt  to  be  an  indirect  guaranty  of  an  upper  house  com- 
posed of  men  of  wealth,  which  was  the  general  desire  f^  while  the 
adoption  of  the  electoral  system  provided  assurance  of  conserva- 
tive action  in  the  choice  of  the  executive.^^    In  providing  for  a 


"  Ibid.,  I,  48. 

8^  Ibid.,  I,  48,  137.  Cf.  Mercer,  205,  216.  Antagonism  to  the  agrarian  class  appears  in 
Pinckney 's  utterance:  "An  election  of  either  branch  by  the  people  scattered  as  they  are  in 
many  States,  particularly  in  S.  Carolina  was  totally  impracticable.  He  differed  from  gentle- 
men who  thought  that  a  choice  by  the  people  wd.  be  a  better  guard  agst.  bad  measures,  than 
by  the  Legislatures.  A  majority  of  the  people  in  S.  Carolina  were  notoriously  for  paper  money 
as  a  legal  tender ;  the  Legislature  had  refused  to  make  it  a  legal  tender.  The  reason  was  that 
the  latter  had  some  sense  of  character." 

88  Cf.  Dickinson's  objection  to  property  qualifications  for  office  holding :  "The  best  de- 
fence lay  in  the  freeholders  who  were  to  elect  the  Legislature.  Whilst  this  Source  should  re- 
main pure,  the  public  interest  would  be  safe It  seemed  improper  that  any  man  of  merit 

should  be  subjected  to  disabilities  in  a  Republic  where  merit  was  understood  to  form  the  great 
title  to  public  trust,  honors  &  rewards."    Ibid.,  II,  123. 

""  On  July  26  Mason  moved  "that  the  Committee  of  detail  be  instructed  to  receive  a 
clause  requiring  certain  qualifications  of  landed  property  &  citizenship  in  members  of  the  Legis- 
lature." Ibid.,  II,  121.  Mr.  Pinckney  seconded  the  motion.  Mr.  Pinckney  and  General  Pinckney 
moved  to  insert  the  words  "Judiciary  &  Executive  so  as  to  extend  the  qualifications  to  those 
departments  which  was  agreed  to  nem  con."  Ibid.,  II,  122.  A  discussion  followed  concerning 
the  propriety  of  requiring  landed  property,  and  the  word  "landed"  was  stricken  out  by  a 
vote  of  ten  states  to  one.  124.  Mason's  motion  as  amended  was  then  carried.  Ayes  8,  noes  3. 
125.  The  Committee  encountered  difficulties  (249),  and  in  Art.  VI,  Sec.  2  of  its  report  left 
the  whole  matter  with  Congress:  "The  Legislature  of  the  United  States  shall  have  authority 
to  establish  such  uniform  qualifications  of  the  members  of  each  House,  with  regard  to  property 
as  to  the  said  Legislature  shall  seem  expedient."  179.  This  proved  unsatisfactory  to  the  con- 
vention, but  efforts  to  improve  upon  it  failed,  and  the  whole  section  was  lost  by  a  vote  of 
3  to  7.    251. 

"1  Cf.,  e.  g.,  Dickinson,  ibid.,   I,   150  ;  Gerry,  152  ;  Mason,  428. 

*-  Many  thought  that  there  should  be  specific  provision  to  insure  that  judges  and  execu- 
tive should  be  men  of  property.  Cf.  note  90,  motion  of  the  Pinckney's.  Mr.  Pinckney  thought 
the  president  should  possess  an  unencumbered  estate  of  not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  value,  and  each  judge  not  less  than  half  as  much,  and  moved  that  each  official  should  be 
required  to  swear  that  he  possessed  such  an  estate  as  might  be  provided  in  the  constitution 
for  his  office.  The  motion  was  opposed  by  Ellsworth  because  of  the  impropriety  of  fixed  and 
uniform  requirements,  and  by  Franklin  on  the  liberal  ground  that  riches  do  not  guarantee 
character,  and  that  the  constitution  ought  not  to  betray  a  great  partiality  to  the  rich.  Ibid., 
II,  246-251.  Which  argument  was  the  more  effective  cause  of  the  loss  of  the  motion  can  only 
be  conjectured. 


32  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

"popular"  lower  branch  of  the  legislature,  the  usual  limitations  on 
the  suffrage  were  imposed  indirectly  by  the  provision  that  "the 
electors  in  each  state  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite  for 
electors  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  state  legislature."  ^^ 
Gouverneur  Morris  voiced  a  common  opinion  in  the  convention  when 
he  said  that  "property  was  the  main  object  of  society,"  ^*  and  it 
would  appear  that  even  the  provision  for  representation  in  the 
lower  house  in  proportion  to  population  was  in  the  minds  of  some 
acceptable  chiefly  because  population  seemed  to  be  the  most  con- 
venient measure  of  the  relative  wealth  of  states.^^  On  this  prin- 
ciple of  basing  apportionment  upon  wealth  rather  than  people  an 
influential  minority  wished  to  have  a  scheme  adopted  which  would 
give  the  original  states  a  permanent  preponderance  over  the  new 
states  of  the  interior,  after  the  model  of  the  practice  of  the  old 
seaboard  aristocracies."^ 

As  in  the  state  constitutions,  however,  members  were  will- 
ing to  grant  some  recognition  to  democratic  theory,  as  appears  in 
the  provision  for  ratification  of  the  constitution  in  popular  con- 
ventions; that  is,  conventions  representative  of  the  voters.  De- 
claring that  the  legislatures  had  no  power  to  ratify.  Mason  asked : 
"Whither,  then,  must  we  resort?"  and  answered  his  own  question 
by  saying:  "To  the  people,  with  whom  all  power  remains  that  has 


*'  Constitution,  Art  I,  Sec.  2.  In  discussing  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Detail,  G. 
Morris  proposed  a  restriction  of  the  suffrage  to  freeholders.  The  fact  that  owners  of  other 
kinds  of  property  enjoyed  the  franchise  in  some  states,  and  regard  for  the  prerogative  of  states 
in  regulating  the  suffrage,  defeated  the  proposal.  Ibid.,  II,  201-206.  Mason  opposed  the  motion 
on  the  ground  that  the  predilection  for  the  freehold  qualification  was  a  British  tradition.  "We 
all  feel  too  strongly  the  remains  of  ancient  prejudices,  and  view  things  too  much  through 
a  British  Medium Does  no  other  kind  of  property  but  land  evidence  a  common  in- 
terest in  the  proprietor?"  Ibid.,  203.  Note  the  tendency  of  the  western  leader  to  desire  an 
American  order. 

»*/6id.,  I,  533. 

*^  Cf.  Mason's  statement  below,  48.  See  the  discussion  of  the  basis  of  apportionment  on 
July  12,  especially  statement  of  Wilson:  "Less  umbrage  would  perhaps  be  taken  agst.  an  ad- 
mission of  slaves  into  the  Rule  of  representation,  if  it  should  be  so  expressed  as  to  make  them 
indirectly  only  an  ingredient  in  the  rule,  by  saying  that  they  should  enter  into  the  rule  of  tax- 
ation:  and  as  representation  was  to  be  according  to  taxation  [italics  mine],  the  end  would  be 
equally  attained."  Ibid.,  I,  595.  This  suggestion  paved  the  way  for  the  "three-fifths  compro- 
mise ;"  t.  e.,  population,  including  three-fifths  of  the  slaves,  was  accepted  as  the  measure  of 
the  relative  wealth  and  tax-paying  ability  of  the  states,  and  representation  was  to  be  allowed 
in  the  lower  house  in  proportion  to  wealth  and  tax  contributions.  This  was  in  harmony  with 
the  original  proposal  in  the  Virginia  plan.  Resolution  2 :  "The  rights  of  suffrage  in  the 
National  Legislature  ought  to  be  proportioned  to  the  Quotas  of  Contribution,  or  to  the  num- 
ber of  free  inhabitants."  Ibid.,  I,  20.  With  the  addition  of  the  slaves  the  compromise  met  both 
alternatives. 

••  See  below,  46  et  acq. 


RISE  OF  PARTIES  33 

not  been  given  up  in  the  constitutions  derived  from  them."  "^  Madi- 
son also  held  that  only  ratification  by  the  people  could  give  the  new 
system  validity.''-  But  there  is  no  ground  for  the  view  that  by  "the 
people"  any  member  had  in  mind  any  one  except  the  voters;  and 
the  contention  of  Republican  writers  a  few  years  later,  based  on 
such  recognition  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as  has  been  men- 
tioned, that  the  constitution  was  intended  to  be  a  democratic  in- 
strument of  government,  was  a  case  of  the  loose  application  to  that 
document  of  terms  which  properly  implied  political  doctrines  very 
different  from  those  which  it  embodied. 

It  may  now  be  perceived  that  the  opening  of  the  constitutional 
era  found  the  train  well  laid  for  political  divisions  coinciding  in 
the  main  with  the  old  economic  and  geographical  divergences.  The 
friends  of  the  constitution  were  the  owners  of  public  securities,  of 
shops  and  ships,  of  interest-bearing  investments  of  all  kinds,  of 
plantations  and  farms  producing  crops  which  depended  upon  com- 
merce for  a  market,  and  of  personalty  in  slaves.  They  dwelt  mostly 
near  the  seaboard,  composed  the  class  which  had  long  dominated 
politically,  and  still  clung  to  aristocratic  theories  of  government. 
The  vast  majority  of  the  antifederalists  were  small  farmers,  who 
composed  the  bulk  of  the  democratic  debtor  class,  dwelt  inland, 
and,  for  both  political  and  economic  reasons,  regarded  the  sea- 
board aristocrats  with  jealousy  and  distrust.  The  contest  over  the 
framing  and  adoption  of  the  constitution  was,  then,  an  episode  in 
the  conflict  between  the  two  opposing  groups  the  formation  of 
which  we  have  traced,  and  the  effect  of  its  adoption  was  to  secure 
for  the  old  governing  class,  on  the  scale  of  the  nation  (so  long  as 
it  could  control  the  administration  of  the  government)  much  the 
same  sort  of  dominance  which  it  had  so  long  enjoyed  in  the  states. 
Of  the  continuity  of  the  Federalist  and  Republican  parties  with 
the  old  divisions  little  need  be  said.   That  they  were  not  identical 


"^  Ibid.,  II,  88.  The  practical  problem  of  framing  an  instrument  which  would  be  likely 
to  win  the  approving  vote  of  constituent  bodies  in  which  the  agrarian  interest  would  possess 
considerable  strength  confi-onted  the  convention  constantly,  and  tended  to  tone  down  the  aris- 
tocracy of  its  provisions.  Cf.  the  necessity  of  making  a  second  effort  at  constitution  framing 
in  Massachusetts,  largely  for  lack  of  "popular"  features  in  the  draft  of  1778.  Above,  26,  /.  n  66. 
The  sincerity  of  Adams,  Mason,  Madison,  and  others,  in  their  profession  of  the  compact  theory  and 
belief  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  hardly  to  be  doubted.  Cf.  the  declai-ation  of  Adams : 
"The  right  of  the  people  to  establish  such  a  government  as  they  please,  will  ever  be  defended 
by  me,  whether  they  choose  wisely  or  foolishly."  Letter  to  Francis  Dana,  Aug.  16,  1776, 
quoted  by  Gushing,  Transition,  199.  But  it  was  the  work  of  practical  statesmanship  to  secure 
the  popular  acceptance  of  instruments  of  government  which  would  also  embody  the  views  of 
the  conservatives.    At  this  the  constitution  makers  of  the  period  were  astonishingly  successful. 

"8  Farrand,  Records,  II,  92-93,  476. 


34  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

in  every  respect  is  readily  conceded,  but  the  political  philosophy 
and  practical  programs  of  the  leaders  of  the  respective  parties 
were  those  of  the  seaboard  interest  on  the  one  hand  and  the  in- 
terior agrarian  population  on  the  other.^^ 

For  our  purpose,  sufficient  insight  into  Hamilton's  philosophy 
of  government  is  given  by  his  speech  in  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion on  June  18.  "All  communities  divide  themselves,"  he  said, 
"into  the  few  and  the  many.  The  first  are  the  rich  and  well  born, 
the  other  the  mass  of  the  people.  The  voice  of  the  people  has  been 
said  to  be  the  voice  of  God ;  and  however  generally  this  maxim  has 
been  quoted  and  believed,  it  is  not  true  in  fact.  The  people  are 
turbulent  and  changing;  they  seldom  judge  or  determine  right. 
Give  therefore  to  the  first  class  a  distinct,  permanent  share  in  the 
government.  They  will  check  the  unsteadiness  of  the  second,  and 
as  they  cannot  receive  any  advantage  by  a  change,  they  therefore 
will  ever  maintain  good  government.  Can  a  democratic  assembly 
who  annually  revolve  in  the  mass  of  the  people,  be  supposed  steadily 
to  pursue  the  public  good?  Nothing  but  a  permanent  body  can 
check  the  imprudence  of  democracy."  "°  While  thus  betraying  his 
lack  of  confidence  in  the  people  at  large,  Hamilton  did  not  advocate 
their  exclusion  from  government  and  its  monopolization  by  the 
"rich  and  well  born."  "Give  all  power  to  the  many,  they  will  op- 
press the  few.  Give  all  power  to  the  few,  they  will  oppress  the 
many.  Both,  therefore,  ought  to  have  the  power,  that  each  may 
defend  itself  against  the  other."  ^°^  "In  his  private  opinion  .... 
the  British  Government  was  the  best  in  the  world ;  and  he  doubted 
much  whether  anything  short  of  it  would  do  in  Ameriba."  ^°^  While 
entertaining  no  hope  of  the  adoption  of  his  ideas,  he  believed  that 
a  proper  government  should  provide  for  a  senate  and  executive 
holding  during  good  behavior  and  chosen  by  the  electoral  system 
instead  of  by  the  voters  directly.  His  measures  spoke  even  more 
loudly  than  his  words.  As  secretary  of  the  treasury  under  Wash- 


**  Cf.  Libby,  Geographical  Distribution,  and  Beard,  Economic  Interpretation.  The  degree 
of  continuity  between  the  parties  of  the  constitutional  period  and  the  friends  and  opponents 
respectively  of  the  constitution,  is  studied  in  Beard,  Origins,  with  perhaps  undue  emphasis  on 
the  continuity.  Beard  also  stresses  the  economic  conflict  and  neglects  the  geographical  aspects 
with  which  the  present  writer  is  especially  concerned.  For  criticism  of  Beard's  position  see 
review  by  Libby  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review,  III,  99.  Libby  minimizes  the 
continuity.  For  fuller  stp.tement  of  Libby "s  view,  see  "A  Sketch  of  the  Early  Political  Parties 
in  the  United  States,"  in  Quarterly  Journal  of   the   University  of  North  Dakota,   II,   205-242. 

lO"  Farrand,  Records,  I,  299,  et  seq. 

loi  Ihid.,  I,  282-293. 

i»2  Ibid, 


RISE  OF  PARTIES  35 

ington,  and  the  leading  spirit  in  the  administration,  his  whole 
scheme  of  practical  politics  centered  in  his  fiscal  system,  which 
favored  the  moneyed  interests  and  allied  the  government  with  the 
financiers,  merchants,  manufacturers,  and  speculators.  These  were 
an  influential  portion  of  the  party  which  had  established  the  con- 
stitution, and  Hamilton's  creed  embraced  no  hope  of  successful 
government  apart  from  their  active  support.  They  were  the  rich 
and  well  born  whose  influence  was  essential  to  check  the  unsteadi- 
ness of  the  mass  of  the  people.  Under  his  guiding  genius,  there- 
fore, the  Federalist  party  became  the  party  of  the  great  majority 
of  the  old  ruling  class,  especially  in  the  North. 

Hamilton  was  eminently  a  practical  rather  than  a  philosophical 
statesman.  It  was  John  Adams,  his  chief  rival  within  the  party, 
who  essayed  the  role  of  political  philosopher.  With  wearisome 
refinement  of  detail  he  worked  out  the  theory  which  the  Federalist 
leaders  agreed,  with  minor  variations,  in  holding.  Society  invaria- 
bly divides  into  classes,  of  which  the  rich,  well  born,  and  able  con- 
stitute a  natural  aristocracy.  As  the  classes  invariably  contend  for 
dominance,  the  desideratum  in  government  is  such  a  representa- 
tion of  classes  as  will  establish  a  balance.  As  the  aristocratic 
element  represents  stability  and  the  other  classes  the  more  tur- 
bulent factor,  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich  would  be  best  off 
under  a  system  by  which  substantial  control  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  propertied  few.  The  benefits  of  order  and  se- 
curity would  then  be  diffused  throughout  the  whole.  "Give  the 
property  and  liberty  of  the  rich  a  security  in  the  senate,  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  poor  in  a  popular  assembly,"  and  erect  an 
independent  executive  with  a  long  term  to  mediate  between  them, 
with  an  independent  judiciary,  removable  only  by  joint  consent  of 
senate  and  assembly,  to  check  both  legislature  and  executive.  The 
nearest  approach  to  the  ideal  government  Adams  finds,  like  Ham- 
ilton, in  the  English  constitution.  "The  English  constitution  is  the 
only  one  which  has  considered  and  provided  for  all  cases  that  are 
known  to  have  generally,  indeed  to  have  always,  happened  in  the 
progress  of  every  nation;  it  is,  therefore,  the  only  scientific  gov- 
ernment." The  Federalists  showed  small  faith  that  America  would 
succeed  in  improving  greatly  upon  European  models.^^^ 

1°'  See  Beard,  Economic  Origins,  Chap.  11,  for  a  sketch  of  the  political  economy  of  John 
Adams.  A  fuller  study  of  Adams's  opinions  is  made  in  Walsh,  C.  M.,  The  Political  Science  of 
John  Adams.  For  views  of  other  Federalists  and  discussion  of  their  debt  to  the  thought  of 
Adams,  especially  in  the  period  of  the  Federal  Convention,  see  ibid.,  804  et  seq.;  also  285  et.  acq. 


36  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

The  unification  of  the  Federalist  party  during  the  discussion 
of  Hamilton's  financial  system  precipitated  a  like  movement  among 
those  who  opposed  his  measures.  These  found  their  prophet  and 
organizer  in  Jefferson.  If  Hamilton  incarnated  the  spirit  of  that 
coastal  order  which  derived  its  political  creed  from  the  Old  World, 
Jefferson  personified  no  less  the  spirit  of  that  New  World  which 
contemned  European  tradition  and  had  faith  in  an  American  order. 
Born  himself  on  the  Virginian  frontier,  his  philosophy  of  the  state 
was  permanently  influenced  by  his  boyhood  environment.  The  ten- 
dencies thus  early  imparted  to  his  thought  must  have  coincided 
remarkably  with  the  impressions  received  from  his  later  studies  in 
political  philosophy,  and  his  residence  in  France  during  the  early 


and  /.  n.  Contrasting  the  views  of  Adams  and  Hamilton  Beard  remarks:  "The  former  feared 
the  rich  almost  as  much  as  the  poor,  believing  that  they  were  as  prone  to  use  the  government 
in  spoliation  as  the  latter.  Hamilton  does  not  seem  to  have  regarded  the  rich  as  a  danger  to 
the  state.  On  the  contrary,  he  viewed  the  rich  and  well  born  as  the  safest  depositaries  of  public 
power,  although  he  advocated  the  admission  of  the  propertyless  to  a  speaking  voice  in  the 
government.  Adams  did  not  view  the  conflict  as  a  struggle  between  personalty  and  real  prop- 
erty owners  but  between  the  rich  and  poor,  although  in  his  classification  most  of  the  farmers 
and  petty  tradesmen  were  placed  in  the  latter  category.  Hamilton  was  essentially  the  spokes- 
man of  the  commercial  and  financial  classes.  Contrary  to  contemporary  misrepresentation,  it 
would  appear  that  Adams'  property  was  in  land  rather  than  stock  and  bonds.  In  fact  his 
biographer  says  that  'in  Mr.  Adams's  vocabulary,  the  word  property  meant  land.  He  had  no 
confidence  in  the  permanence  of  anything  else.'  Such  a  man  was  not  temperamentally  fitted 
to  become  the  leader  of  a  party  founded  principally  upon  capitalistic  as  opposed  to  landed  in- 
terests. Hamilton  believed  that  his  fiscal  and  commercial  policy  was  advantageous  to  the  bene- 
ficiaries and  the  nation  at  large ;  he  wanted  positive  action  in  support  of  those  policies,  not 
'mediation'  between  contending  factions.  Under  the  circumstances  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Adams  had  about  as  much  sympathy  for  Jefferson  as  for  Hamilton."  Economic  Origins,  318-319. 
In  reducing  the  principle  of  cleavage  between  Federalists  and  Republicans  to  the  struggle  be- 
tween personalty  and  real  property.  Beard  makes  the  issue  too  simple,  and  overlooks  the  geo- 
graphical distribution  of  interests.  Wealth  in  personalty  was  practically  confined  to  the  coast, 
hence  the  secret  of  the  adhesion  of  one  influential  group  to  the  Federalist  party.  But  the  party 
included  the  landed  aristocracy  in  New  England  throughout  its  existence,  because  their  inter- 
ests and  ideals  were  those  of  the  coastal  order. 

Adams  held  liberal  views  in  the  Revolutionary  period  (see  above,  26,  /.  n.  66)  which  yielded 
as  time  passed  to  those  opinions  which  caused  him  to  be  regarded  as  an  aristocrat.  The  equality 
of  man,  the  social  compact,  and  the  consent  of  the  governed  were  dogmas  which  he  held  in  com- 
mon with  other  "fathers  of  the  Revolution."  His  rather  humble  origin  places  him  fairly  among 
the  popular  leaders  of  that  era.  His  belief  in  restricting  the  suffrage  to  freeholders,  joined 
with  his  advocacy  of  measures  to  facilitate  subdivision  of  land  ownership,  remind  us  of  Jef- 
ferson (below,  38).  At  the  same  time  he  aspired,  before  the  Revolution,  to  become  one  of  the 
influential  class  which  "had  succeeded  in  bringing  into  existence  distant  imitations  of  the  Eng- 
lish type  of  society  and  government"  (Walsh,  228)  ;  and  while  he  insisted  upon  the  right  of 
the  people  to  adopt  such  government  as  they  chose,  whether  good  or  bad,  in  the  formation  of 
state  constitutions  he  "hoped  our  people  would  be  wise  enough  ....  to  preserve  the  Eng- 
lish constitution  in  its  spirit  and  substance,  so  far  as  the  circumstances  of  this  country  re- 
quired and  would  admit,"  omitting  only  the  hereditary  features  which  had  not  existed  in 
America  and  would  not  be  tolerated.  (Ibid.)  Besides  a  property  qualification  for  both  electors 
and  elected,  "higher  for  the  latter,  and  ....  rising  in  gradation  with  the  importance  of  the 
office,"  he  desired  a  religious  test  confirming  certain  offices  to  Christians.  (Ibid.,  11).  Al- 
though his  views  became  distinctly  less  liberal  from  about  1786  (ibid.,  258-259,  281  et  seg.) , 
his  later  opinions  appear  to  have  been  the  natural  development  of  his  early  ones. 


RISE  OF  PARTIES  37 

days  of  the  Revolution  brought  him  into  contact  with  theories 
which  confirmed  his  own  conclusions  concerning  the  conditions 
which  conduce  to  human  welfare  and  happiness.  Conclusions  which 
Rousseau  and  his  compeers  arrived  at  by  dint  of  abstract  reasoning, 
Jefferson  held  as  naturally  as  if  he  had  breathed  them  in  with  the 
air  of  the  Virginia  piedmont.  It  was  fitting  that  the  man  who  for- 
mulated the  philosophical  justification  of  revolution  which  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  British  world  hurled  against  the  eastern  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  should  later  become  the  leader  of 
the  inland  farming  democracy  in  its  contest  with  the  American 
heirs  of  British  tradition.  Jefferson's  political  creed  was,  indeed, 
the  reflex  of  his  philosophy  of  society.  He  believed  that  a  simple 
agricultural  economy  afforded  the  best  basis  for  a  free  state,  since 
it  fostered  individualism  and  equality.  Such  a  society  America 
had  done  much  to  produce,  and  made  possible  in  future,  with  its 
"immensity  of  land  courting  the  industry  of  the  husbandman."  A 
complex  industrialism  with  workshops  and  wage  labor  he  wished 
to  discourage,  as  tending  to  destroy  self-reliance  and  equality  of 
condition  among  men,  and  to  introduce  the  class  antagonisms  which 
had  led  to  the  oppression  and  debasement  of  the  people  in  the  Old 
World.  Commerce  he  admitted  in  his  order  as  the  means  of  ex- 
changing the  surplus  of  an  agricultural  country  for  the  manu- 
factures of  the  overcrowded  countries  of  Europe,  and  hence  as  a 
means  of  keeping  manufactures  with  their  corrupting  influences 
away  from  our  shores.  The  ships  of  commerce,  with  their  protect- 
ing navies,  he  preferred  to  let  the  European  nations  supply.  In 
such  an  Arcadian  society  the  functions  of  government  would  be 
at  a  minimum,  the  need  of  taxation  slight,  and  individual  freedom 
and  initiative  at  their  best.^°* 

The  relation  of  this  conception  of  society  and  government  to 
Jefferson's  early  surroundings  and  to  the  life  of  the  class  whose 


104  "Those  who  labor  in  the  earth  are  the  chosen  people  of  God,  if  ever  He  had  a  chosen 
people,  whose  breasts  He  has  made  His  peculiar  deposit  for  substantial  and  genuine  virtue.  It 
is  the  focus  in  which  he  keeps  alive  that  sacred  fire,  which  otherwise  might  escape  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.  Corruption  of  morals  in  the  mass  of  cultivators  is  a  phenomenon  of  which 
no  age  nor  nation  has  furnished  an  example.  It  is  the  mark  set  on  those,  who,  not  looking 
up  to  heaven,  to  their  own  soil  and  industry,  as  does  the  husbandman,  for  their  subsistence, 
depend  for  it  on  casualties  and  caprice  of  customers.  Dependence  begets  subservience  and 
venality,  suffocates  the  germ  of  virtue,  and  prepares  fit  tools  for  the  designs  of  ambition.  This, 
the  natural  progress  and  consequence  of  the  arts,  has  sometimes  perhaps  been  retarded  by 
accidental  circumstances  ;  but,  generally  speaking,  the  proportion  which  the  aggregate  of  other 
classes  of  citizens  bears  in  any  State  to  that  of  its  husbandmen,  is  the  proportion  of  its  un- 
sound to  its  healthy  parts,  and  is  a  good  enough  barometer  whereby  to  measure  its  degree  of 
corruption.    While   we  have  land  to  labor,  then,  let  us  never  wish  to  see  our  citizens  occupied 


38  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

spokesman  he  was,  is  obvious.  Very  appropriately  he  has  been 
called  a  "backwoods  statesman,"  for  this  set  of  theories,  born  of 
frontier  conditions,  affected  his  policies  throughout  his  public 
career. 

While  Jefferson  thus  identified  the  cause  of  good  government 
with  the  dominance  of  the  agricultural  class,  as  opposed  to  the 
capitalistic  interests  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Federalist 
party,  his  democracy  was  not  without  limitations.  He  declared  in 
1800  that  he  had  always  been  in  favor  of  a  "general  suffrage."  ^°^ 
It  does  not  appear  that  he  was  ready  to  insist  upon  manhood  suf- 
frage, however,  for  in  the  draft  constitution  prepared  for  the  use 
of  friends  in  the  Virginia  convention  of  1776  he  provided  a  small 
freehold  qualification  for  the  exercise  of  the  franchise.^"''  If  the 
whole  of  his  plan  be  considered,  however,  this  qualification  be- 
comes almost  equivalent  to  manhood  suffrage,  for,  in  harmony  with 
his  faith  in  agriculture  as  the  best  foundation  for  a  state,  he  would 
have  had  estates  granted  to  all  males,  from  the  public  lands."^ 
His  theory  of  democracy  did  not  embrace  all  orders  of  society,  for 
he  could  not  overcome  his  distrust  of  the  working  class  of  cities. 
His  hope  of  an  American  order  was  bound  up  with  the  continued 
preponderance  of  agriculture,  for  he  believed  that  "when  we  get 
piled  upon  one  another  in  large  cities,  as  in  Europe,  we  shall  be- 
come corrupt  as  in  Europe,  and  go  to  eating  one  another  as  they 
do  there."  "^  Thus  he  appears  not  so  much  as  the  apostle  of  a 
complete  democracy,  as  he  does  the  champion  of  an  Arcadian  form 
of  society  as  the  one  best  calculated  to  promote  the  happiness  of 
mankind.    Hence  in  contrast  with    Hamilton   his    program    was 


at  a  workbench,  or  twirling  a  distaff.  Carpenters,  masons,  smiths,  are  wanting  in  husbandry; 
but,  for  the  general  operations  of  manufacture,  let  our  workshops  remain  in  Europe.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  carry  provisions  and  materials  to  workmen  there,  than  to  bring  them  to  the  provisions 
and  materials,  and  with  them  their  manners  and  principles.  The  loss  by  the  transportation  of 
commodities  across  the  Atlantic  will  be  made  up  in  happiness  and  permanence  of  government. 
The  mobs  of  great  cities  add  just  so  much  to  the  support  of  pure  government  as  sores  do  to 
the  strength  of  the  human  body."  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  written  in  the  winter  of  1781-1782. 
Ford,  Writings  of  Jefferson,  III,  2€8-26'J. 

To  this  description  of  the  ideal  economic  basis  for  a  free  state  may  be  added  the  state- 
ment of  the  ideal  of  government  given  in  the  inaugural  address  of  1801 :  "A  wise  and  frugal 
government,  which  shall  restrain  men  from  injuring  one  another,  shall  leave  them  otherwise 
free  to  regulate  their  own  pursuits  of  industry  and  improvement,  and  shall  not  take  from  the 
mouth  of  labour  the  bread  it  has  earned."  Ibid.,  VIII,  4.  See  Beard's  summary  of  Jefferson's 
views,  in  Origins,  Chap.  14. 

^"^  Ibid.,  461. 

i""  See  above,  25,  /.  n.  59,  and  text  of  draft  in  Ford,  Writings,  II,  7. 

i"  See  discussion  in  Beard,  Economic  Origins,  457-463,  and  Anderson,  in  Amer.  Hist. 
Rev.,  XXI,  750-754. 

^o*  Letter  to  Madison,  Dec.  20,  1787.    Ford,  Writinga  of  Jefferson,  IV,  479. 


RISE  OF  PARTIES  39 

largely  negative,  or  laissez  faire,  and  he  appears  in  national  poli- 
tics as  the  opponent  of  changes  conceived  in  the  ihterest  of  the 
capitalist  class ;  the  preserver  of  the  social  and  political  status  quo, 
rather  than  as  the  leader  of  further  democratic  advance."'' 

While  it  is  true  that  the  Federalist  and  Republican  parties 
separated  in  the  main  along  the  old  lines  of  cleavage,  one  notable 
exception  must  be  mentioned.  As  a  class  the  planters  had  con- 
stituted one  of  the  groups  of  the  dominant  order  which  had  joined 
in  the  movement  for  the  formation  of  a  stronger  government. 
Within  a  few  years,  however,  most  of  them  had  accepted  the 
leadership  of  Jefferson.  The  causes  of  this  defection  lie  partly  in 
specific  issues.  Many  planters,  especially  in  Virginia,  stood  in 
somewhat  the  same  relation  to  their  British  creditors  that  the  in- 
terior farmers  did  to  the  merchants  of  the  coast  region.  Desire 
to  escape  from  their  obligations  has  been  charged  as  one  cause  of 
their  Whiggism  during  the  Revolution,  and  fear  that  the  claims 
would  be  enforced  by  the  federal  courts  may  have  been  a  factor 
in  the  opposition  which  some  of  them  showed  to  the  new  constitu- 
tion.^" Jay's  treaty,  with  its  provision  for  a  joint  commission  to 
adjudicate  the  debts  due  British  merchants,  was  a  further  cause 
of  alienation. ^^^  Hamilton's  assumption  scheme  laid  a  burden  upon 
Virginia,  which  had  paid  its  debt,  for  the  benefit  chiefly  of  north- 
ern security  holders  ;^^^  and  in  most  of  the  planting  states  lack  of 
fluid  capital  deprived  even  the  wealthy  of  opportunity  of  profit 


108  This  ig  true  during  the  Federalist  regime.  His  program  of  social  reform  fell  within 
his  conception  of  the  sphere  of  state  rather  than  federal  action.  His  program  of  federal  action 
became  more  positive  when  he  reached  the  presidency. 

Cf.  Madison's  reasons  for  joining  the  opposition  to  Hamilton  which  developed  into  the 
Republican  party:  "I  deserted  Colonel  Hamilton,  or,  rather,  he  deserted  me;  in  a  word,  the 
divergence  between  us  took  place  from  his  wishing  to  ...  .  adminster  the  government  into 
what  he  thought  it  ought  to  be ;  while  on  my  part,  I  endeavored  to  make  it  conform  to  the 
constitution  as  understood  by  the  convention  that  produced  and  recommended  it,  and  particu- 
larly by  the  state  conventions  that  adopted  it."  Rives,  Life  of  Madison,  III,  177,  quoted  by 
Gordy,  J.  P.,  Political  History  of  the  United  States,  I,  140.  In  this  desire  of  Madison,  shared 
by  Jefferson,  to  hold  the  constitution  to  their  conception  of  its  original  meaning  we  have  the 
origin  of  the  Republican  doctrine  of  strict  construction. 

11"  Oliver  Wolcott,  quoted  by  Beard,  Economic  Origins,  297. 

Ill /bid..   Chap.   10. 

112  The  Republican  view  of  the  tendencies  of  Hamilton's  measures  can  be  summed  up  by 
quoting  a  single  sentence:  "In  an  agricultural  country  like  this  ....  to  erect,  and  concentrate 
and  perpetuate  a  large  monied  interest,  is  a  measure  which  your  memorialists  apprehend  must 
■in  the  course  of  human  events  produce  one  or  other  of  two  evils,  the  prostration  of  agriculture 
at  the  feet  of  commerce,  or  a  change  in  the  present  form  of  federal  government,  fatal  to  the 
existence  of  American  liberty."  Resolutions  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  on  the  As- 
sumption Act  of  1790,  reprinted  in  Ames,  H.  V.,  State  Documents  on  Federal  Relations,  5.  Cf. 
diecuBsion  of  Hamilton's  fiscal  system  in  Beard,  Economic  Origins,  Chaps.  5,  6. 


40  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

through  subscribing  for  stock  of  the  United  States  Bank.^^^  For 
reasons  of  this  nature,  although  many  planters  remained  true  to 
the  Federalist  party  as  late  as  the  election  of  1800,  there  was  a 
pretty  steady  drift  to  the  ranks  of  the  opposition."*  Through  com- 
munity of  opposition  to  measures  which  advanced  the  interest  of  a 
class  of  fluid  capital  owners,  located  chiefly  in  the  northern  states, 
the  two  classes  of  agriculturists  which  had  been  so  long  in  conflict 
in  the  southern  states,  came  together  in  the  national  party  known 
as  Jeff ersonian  Republicanism.  It  must  iDe  recognized,  too,  that  the 
aristocratic  faction,  through  the  privileged  position  which  it  en- 
joyed in  the  states,  was  able  to  dominate  this  alliance,  so  that  south- 
ern republicanism  became  a  party  consisting  largely  of  small  farm- 
ers led  and  represented  by  planters.  This  union  was  brought  about 
the  more  readily  because  of  the  absence  of  a  positive  democratic 
propagandism  on  Jefferson's  part,  which  might  have  alienated  the 
planters. 


lis /bid.,  153. 

ii<  Phillips,  "The  South  Carolina  Federslists,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Rev.,  XIV,  529-543  ;  731-743, 
gives  some  insight  into  the  motives  of  the  planters  v^ho  adhered  to  the  Federalist  party  during 
the  nftieties,  as  well  as  the  motives  of  those  who  espoused  Republicanism. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF 
WESTERN  EQUALITY 

In  the  foregoing  chapter  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  show 
thatXlhe  first  parties  in  our  national  history  grew  out  of  antago- 
nisms in  the  region  between  the  Alleghany  Mountains  and  the  At- 
lantic Ocean,  and  that  these  antagonisms  were  to  a  considerable 
degree  geographical,  the  more  aristocratic  group  occupying  the 
coast  regions  and  the  more  democratic  the  interior.  It  has  also 
been  shown  that  in  the  conflict  of  the  two  the  coastal  order  held  its 
ground  well.  Indeed,  it  may  be  questioned  whether,  on  the  original 
arena,  the  popular  cause  would  ever  have  triumphed.  The  popula- 
tion of  the  hinterland  could  hardly  have  gained  sufficient  weight  to 
break  down  the  strongly  entrenched  peripheral  social  order.'^n  the 
southern  states,  in  fact,  throughout  the  slavery  era,  the  plantation 
system  displayed  the  power  to  advance  steadily  at  the  expense  of 
the  area  of  small  farms.^  The  back  settlements  could  not  have 
saved  their  social  order  by  seceding  and  establishing  independent 
communities,  for  want  of  an  outlet  save  through  the  Atlantic  ports. 
If  there  had  been  no  other  way  of  escape,  it  seems  that  nothing 
short  of  revolution  could  have  prevented  the  independent  farmers 
from  sinking  in  time  to  the  level  of  European  peasants.  The  ac- 
quiescence in  aristocratic  leadership  of  the  Republican  party  was 
ominous.  The  division  of  national  parties  would  probably  have 
been  sharper  along  lines  of  latitude  and  less  marked  along  those 
of  longitude.  Such  was  the  tendency  shown  when  planters  and 
small  farmers  united  in  the  Republican  party.  The  fate  of  the 
northern  masses  is  not  so  easily  conjectured.  They  showed  less 
tendency  to  accept  the  leadership  of  their  former  antagonists,  and 
might  have  maintained  themselves  as  an  important  political  group 
or  party. 

But  the  fate  of  the  farming  democracy  was  not  to  be  deter- 
mined east  of  the  Alleghanies.    The  geographical  basis  of  parties 


1  Cf.  advance  of  plantation  system  to  piedmont  in  Virginia  and  Carolinas :  Ambler,  See- 
tionaliam,  113  ;  Schaper,  "Sectionalism,"  389  et  seq.  See  also  Phillips,  in  Arner.  Hist.  Rev., 
XI,  798-816,  and  Smedes,  Memorials  of  a  Southern  Planter,  extracts  in  Callender,  Selections  from 
the  Economic  History  of  the   United  States,  641  et  seq. 

41 


42  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

was  to  be  greatly  changed  during  the  first  generation  under  the 
constitution,  with  proportionally  significant  changes  in  their  spirit 
and  purposes.  When  Jay  and  Adams  triumphed  over  the  unfriendly 
diplomacy  of  Vergennes  in  the  peace  negotiations  of  1782  and  se- 
cured the  Mississippi  boundary  for  the  United  States,  they  un- 
wittingly prepared  the  overthrow  of  the  political  order  to  which 
they  were  attached.  A  few  years  later  the  national  domain  was 
doubled  by  the  acquisition  of  the  vast  province  of  Louisiana.  Into 
the  wilderness  beyond  the  mountains  the  discontented  poured  again, 
when  conditions  became  unsatisfactory  in  their  former  homes,  just 
as  the  pioneers  had  come  to  the  "Old  West"  east  of  the  mountains. 
Here  a  type  of  society  similar  to  that  which  first  developed  at  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Alleghanies  struck  its  roots  more  deeply  than 
ever  into  the  soil,  and  with  its  widened  geographical  basis  in  time 
made  its  influence  dominant  in  the  nation. 

This  result  could  not  have  followed  had  not  liberal  principles 
won  one  notable  victory  on  the  stage  of  action  east  of  the  moun- 
tains. The  oppressed  might,  indeed,  have  found  freedom  in  the 
western  wilderness  even  under  a  foreign  flag.  Or,  under  pressure 
of  injustice,  they  might  here  have  established  independent  com- 
munities, as  they  could  not  do  on  the  Atlantic  slopes.  But  the  de- 
termination that  the  western  communities  should  in  due  time  be 
formed  into  states  which  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  on 
terms  of  equality  with  the  original  states,  decided  in  advance  that 
western  interests  and  western  ideals  should  one  day  play  the  chief 
part  in  shaping  the  policies  of  the  government. 

The  origin  of  the  idea  of  new  settlements  with  liberal  political 
rights  goes  well  back  into  the  colonial  period.  The  probable  neces- 
sity of  new  governments  in  the  West  was  beginning  to  be  perceived 
as  early  as  the  outbreak  of  the  French  and  Indian  War,  the  ex- 
pected success  in  which  would  give  the  English  control  of  the  Ohio 
Valley.2  A  provision,  for  which  Franklin  was  chiefly  responsible, 
was  therefore  made  in  the  Albany  Plan  of  Intercolonial  Union,  vest- 
ing in  the  general  government  the  power  to  make  new  settlements 
and  to  "make  laws  for  regulating  and  governing"  them  "till  the 
crown  shall  think  fit  to  form  them  into  particular  governments."  ^ 
Franklin's  reflections  upon  the  matter  of  new  colonies  led  him  to 
conclude  that  liberal  government  would  be  one  of  the  essential  in- 


2  Alden,  G.  H.,  New  Governments  West  of  the  Alleghaniea  before  1780. 
*  Bigelow.  Worke  of  Franklin,  II,  868. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  EQUALITY  43 

ducements  to  settlers  to  incur  the  hazards  of  the  wilderness ;  in  his 
own  words,  they  would  have  to  be  allowed  "extraordinary  privi- 
leges and  liberties."  *  Indication  of  the  nature  of  these  extraordi- 
nary privileges  is  found  in  his  suggestion  that  they  should  include 
the  right  of  the  settlers  to  choose  their  own  governor,  which  sug- 
gests colonies  of  the  self-governing,  or  corporate,  type,  rather  than 
the  royal  type  to  which  the  crown  was  attempting  in  the  eighteenth 
century  to  reduce  all  of  the  colonial  establishments.^ 

'  The  twenty  years  following  the  Albany  Congress  were  filled 
with  projects  for  new  colonies,  and  the  discussions  of  the  period 
gave  opportunity  for  the  formation  of  a  public  opinion  as  to  the 
most  suitable  type  of  government  for  transmontane  settlements.^ 
The  British  ministry  also  grappled  with  the  problem,  and  Lord 
Hillsborough,  the  president  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  contended  (de- 
spite the  purpose  implied  in  the  Proclamation  of  1763)  that  new 
colonies  in  the  interior  were  undesirable  because  they  would  be  too 
remote  to  be  of  benefit  to  British  trade,  or  to  be  held  in  due  sub^ 
ordination  to  British  authority.^  Hillsborough's  view  thus  virtually 
recognised  that  the  western  pioneers  would  inevitably  govern  them- 
selves in  their  own  way,  whatever  forms  might  be  imposed  upon 
them.  Franklin  as  agent  for  the  Vandalia  Company,  which  was 
seeking  a  grant  in  the  West  Virginia  region,  urged  the  necessity 
of  the  new  government,  declaring  that  the  tract  asked  for  already 
contained  a  population  of  30,000  souls,  who  could  not  be  governed 
effectively  from  Williamsburg.*  This  argument,  based  on  the  im- 
practicability of  remote  governments,  stressed  one  of  the  grievances 
of  the  settlers  which  we  have  seen  was  the  cause  of  complaints  and 
petitions  from  the  back  country  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Carolinas 
in  this  same  period;^  and,  with  other  considerations  urged  by 
Franklin,  won  the  Privy  Council's  approval  of  the  Vandalia  grant, 
with  a  scheme  of  government  similar  to  those  of  the  existing  royal 
colonies. ^°  The  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  however,  prevented  the 
consummation  of  the  grant,  and  transferred  the  whole  problem  of 
new  western  governments  to  Congress.   The  question  next  became 


*  Ibid..  II,  474. 
s  Ibid. 

*  Ibid.,  12-48.    Carter,  C.  E.,  Great  Britain  and  the  Illinois  Country,  103-144.. 
■^  Bigelow,  Works  of  Franklin,  V,  4. 

8  Ibid..  V,  73,  74. 

»  Above.  21,  /.  n.  45. 

1"  Alden,  New  Governments,  28-85. 


44  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

involved  in  the  dispute  over  the  ownership  of  the  western  lands. 
As  soon  as  it  became  evident  that  the  struggle  with  the  mother 
country  would  lead  to  a  declaration  of  independence,  the  Virginia 
legislature  reasserted  the  claim,  long  dormant,  to  all  territory  east 
of  the  Mississippi  granted  to  that  colony  by  the  royal  charter  of 
1609."  Other  colonies  revived  similar  claims.  The  validity  of  these 
claims  was  challenged  by  the  small  states,  under  the  leadership  of 
Maryland.  The  resolutions  adopted  by  the  legislature  of  the  latter, 
in  October,  1776,  give  probably  the  first  clear  and  authoritative 
expression  of  what  must  have  become,  by  that  time,  under  the 
influence  of  experience  and  the  revolutionary  philosophy,  a  com- 
mon opinion  as  to  the  proper  policy  to  be  pursued  in  providing 
for  the  government  of  settlements  beyond  the  mountains — "such 
lands  ought ....  to  be  parcelled  out  at  proper  times  into  convenient, 
free  and  independent  governments."  ^- 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  struggle  which  ended  in  the 
land  cessions  of  Virginia  and  the  other  "claimant"  states.  The 
refusal  of  Maryland  to  ratify  the  Articles  of  Confederation  unless 
cessions  were  promised,"  the  desire  of  land  companies  for  confir- 
mation by  Congress  of  grants  which  the  British  Government  had 
been  ready  to  make,^*  the  necessity  of  concessions  to  secure  the 
alliance  of  Spain,^"^  the  reluctance  of  the  landless  states  to  include 
a  demand  for  the  West  in  the  terms  of  peace  unless  the  territory 
were  to  be  common  property,^*'  and  the  desire  of  the  western  set- 
tlers themselves  for  distinct  governments,^^  are  the  more  important 
factors  in  the  complicated  history  of  the  cessions. 

In  order  to  procure  the  adoption  of  the  Articles,  which  re- 
mained ineffective  so  long  as  a  single  state  ratification  was  lack- 
ing. Congress  repeatedly  appealed  to  the  claimant  states  for  con- 
cessions. In  the  most  notable  of  these  appeals  Congress  committed 
itself  to  the  policy  of  erecting  new  states  in  the  western  territory 


11  Hening,  Statutes,  IX,   118,   reprinted  in  Amer.   Hist.  Leaflet,  No.  22,  2. 

1=  Ibid.,  3. 

1'  Adams,  H.  B.,  "Maryland's  Influence  on  the  Land  Cessions,"  in  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity Studies,  III,  7-54. 

"^^  Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress    (L.   C.  edn.),  XV,   1063-1064. 

1^  Phillips,  P.  C,  The  West  in  the  Diplomacy  of  the  American  Revolution,   177-188. 

i«  Ibid. 

1"  Turner,  "Western  State  Making  in  the  Revolutionary  Era,"  in  Awier.  Hist.  Rev.,  I, 
70-87  ;   261-269. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  EQUALITY  45 

with  all  the  rights  of  the  original  states,^®  Virginia  made  this 
provision  one  of  the  conditions  of  her  cession,  and  thus  a  guaran- 
tee of  equal  rights  for  the  new  West  became  embodied  in  a  com- 
pact safeguarded  by  the  obligations  of  good  faith.^^ 

This  recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  West  is  the  chief  fruit  of 
the  democratic  doctrines  of  the  Revolutionary  era.  Much  as  the 
liberal  ideals  of  the  Puritans,  though  failing  of  realization  in  the 
mother  country,  found  their  opportunity  in  the  northern  colonies, 
the  democracy  of  the  Old  West,  though  suppressed  in  the  original 
states,  because  of  the  dominant  position  of  the  aristocratic  class, 
was  to  find  a  freer  stage  in  the  communities  beyond  the  mountains. 
The  conservatives,  moreover,  who  jealously  guarded  their  favored 
status  in  the  old  states  notwithstanding  the  implications  of  the 
revolutionary  philosophy,  were  readier  to  give  it  free  reign  in  the 
proposed  new  jurisdictions.  The  turbulence  and  discontent  of  the 
western  portions  of  the  old  states  lent  practical  force  to  the  the- 
oretical philosophy,  and  showed  the  impossibility  of  imposing  un- 
welcome restraints  upon  peoples  still  more  remote.  The  memorials 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  settlements  in  western  Virginia  (West 
Virginia  and  Kentucky)  and  North  Carolina  (Tennessee)  spoke 
eloquently  if  uncouthly  of  the  westerners'  belief  in  their  right  of 
establishing  governments  to  suit  themselves.^°  But  one  conclu- 
sion was  possible:  the  West  would  be  either  autonomous  or  inde- 
pendent. 

Nevertheless  the  acts  of  cession  did  not  place  the  status  of  the 
states-to-be  beyond  further  controversy.  The  growth  of  the  West 
was  contemplated  with  apprehension  in  some  quarters.  Tihiothy 
Pickering  among  others  opposed  the  plans  to  extinguish  the  Indian 
title  to  lands  west  of  the  Miami  River,  in  1785,  on  the  ground  that 
they  would  be  occupied  by  "lawless  emigrants."  -^  Both  North  and 
South  regarded  with  doubt  the  effect  which  the  rise  of  new  states 
might  have  upon  the  balance  of  political  power,  and  this  appre- 
hension was  one  reason  for  reducing  the  number  of  states  pro- 


1^  "Resolved,  That  the  ....  lands  ....  shall  ....  be  settled  and  formed  into  dis- 
tinct republican  states,  which  shall  become  members  of  the  federal  union,  and  have  the  same 
rights  of  sovereignty,  freedom  and  independence,  as  the  other  states  .  .  .  .  "  Am.  Hist.  Leaf- 
let, No.  22,  8.    Journals  of  Cant.   Cong.,   XVIII,   915. 

i"  Am.  Hist.  Leaflet,  No.  22,  13. 

="  Turner,  "Western  State  Making ;"  Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West,  II,  398-399  ;  Alden, 
"The  State  of  Franklin,"  in  Ainer.  Hist.  Rev.,  VIII,  271-289. 

21  Winsor,  J.,  The  Westward  Movement    270. 


ff  OF  THE        ^ 


46  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

vided  for  in  the  Ordinance  of  1784."  While  the  committee  of  Con- 
gress was  drafting  the  Ordinance  of  1785  for  the  sale  of  the  ceded 
lands,  certain  eastern  gentlemen  showed  uneasiness  as  to  "the 
consequences  which  may  result  from  the  new  states  taking  their 
position  in  the  Confederacy,"  apparently  wishing  "that  this  event 
may  be  delayed  as  long  as  possible."  -^  The  feeling  of  the  western 
people  towards  the  East  was  no  more  cordial.  Neglected  by  the 
impotent  Confederation  Congress,  and  both  bullied  and  cajoled  by 
the  agents  of  Spain  and  Britain,  the  separation  of  the  West  from 
the  Union  seemed  inevitable.  The  clash  of  its  interests  with  those 
of  the  northern  seaboard  was  revealed  in  the  willingness  of  the 
latter  to  sacrifice  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  for  the  promotion 
of  its  own  commercial  relations  with  Spain,  and  many  westerners 
were  ready  to  risk  the  adventure  of  independence.^*  Unprincipled 
though  he  was,  Wilkinson  showed  sagacity  when  he  declared :  "The 
Atlantic  states  of  America  must  sink  as  the  western  settlements 
rise.  Nature  has  interposed  obstacles  and  established  barriers  be- 
tween these  regions  which  forbid  their  connection  on  principles  of 

reciprocal  interests These  local  causes,  irresistible  in  their 

nature,  must  produce  a  secession  of  the  western  settlements  from 
the  Atlantic  states  .  .  .  ."  ^^ 

The  constitutional  convention  with  its  reactionary  temper 
brought  the  contest  against  the  equality  of  the  new  states  to  a 
head.  The  stress  which  was  laid  upon  property  interests  as  the 
main  reason  for  political  society  raised  a  presumption  against  the 
equal  rights  of  the  poor  western  communities  as  members  of  the 
Union,  which  found  vigorous  expression  during  the  debate  on  the 
basis  of  representation  in  the  lower  house.^®  Gouverneur  Morris 
alluded  to  the  method  by  which  the  eastern  part  of  his  state  (Penn- 
sylvania) had  kept  power  out  of  the  hands  of  the  western  portion, 
and  advocated  the  adoption  of  a  similar  plan  on  a  national  scale. 
"The  lower  part  of  the  State  had  ye.  power  in  the  first  instance. 
They  kept  it  in  yr.  own  hands,  and  the  country  was  ye.  better  for 

22  Barrett,    J.   A.,   Evolution  of  the  Ordinance   of  1787,   34,  /.   n.   3,   39,   40,   and  /.  n.   2. 

2s  William  Grayson  to  Washington,  April  15,  1785,  quoted  by  Bancroft,  Hist,  of  the 
Const.,  I,  425.  Grayson  was  a  member  of  the  committee.  Rufus  King  was  the  Massachusetts 
member  and  may  be  the  subject  of  the  allusion,  in  view  of  the  sentiments  expressed  by  him  in 
the  constitutional  convention.    See  below,  47. 

2<  Roosevelt,    Winning  of  the   West,  III,  89-202. 

25  Quoted  by  Turner,  "The  Diplomatic  Contest  for  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  in  Atlantic 
Monthly,  XCIII,  679. 

20  Farrand,  Max,  "The  Compromises  of  the  Constitution,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Rev.,  IX, 
479  et  aeq. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  EQUALITY  47 

it."  "  "The  Busy  haunts  of  men  not  the  remote  wilderness,  was  the 
proper  School  of  political  Talents.  If  the  Western  people  get  the 
power  into  their  hands  they  will  ruin  the  Atlantic  interests.  The 
Back  members  are  always  most  averse  to  the  best  measures."  ^^ 

"Property  was  the  main  object  of  Society He  thought  the 

rule  of  representation  ought  to  be  so  fixed  as  to  secure  to  the  At- 
lantic States  a  prevalence  in  the  National  Councils.  The  new  States 
will  know  less  of  the  public  interest  than  these,  will  have  an  inter- 
est in  many  respects  different,  in  particular  will  be  little  scrupu- 
lous of  involving  the  Community  in  wars  the  burdens  &  operations 
of  which  would  fall  chiefly  on  the  maritime  States.  Provision 
ought  therefore  to  be  made  to  prevent  the  maritime  States  from 
being  hereafter  outvoted  by  them.  He  thought  this  might  be  easily 
done  by  irrevocably  fixing  the  number  of  representatives  which 
the  Atlantic  States  should  respectively  have,  and  the  number  which 
each  new  State  will  have."^^  In  words  which  echo  the  sectional  con- 
flict in  South  Carolina,  Rutledge  maintained  that  "Property  was 
certainly  the  principal  object  of  society.  If  numbers  should  be  made 
the  rule  of  representation,  the  Atlantic  States  would  be  subjected 
to  the  western."  ^'^  The  conservatism  of  Massachusetts  spoke 
through  King,  Gorham,  and  Gerry.  The  first  held  that  the  "num- 
ber of  inhabitants  was  not  the  proper  index  of  ability  &  wealth; 
that  property  was  the  primary  object  of  Society;  and  that  in  fixing 

a  ratio  this  ought  not  to  be  excluded  from  the  estimate [In 

the  West]  10  new  votes  may  be  added  without  a  greater  addition 
of  inhabitants  than  are  represented  by  the  single  vote  of  Pena."  ^^ 
Gorham,  supporting  the  report  from  his  committee  of  a  plan  for 
representation  in  the  first  congress,  suggested  that  "The  Atlantic 
States,  having  Government  in  their  own  hands,  may  take  care  of 
their  own  interests,  by  dealing  out  the  right  of  representation  in 
safe  proportions  to  the  Western  States."  ^"  Gerry  soon  afterwards 
moved  that  the  representation  of  the  new  states  should  never  ex- 
ceed that  of  the  old,  and  King  seconded  the  motion.^^  Butler  "con- 


"  Farrand,  Records,   I,   583. 

2»  Ibid.  ». 

"0  Ibid.,  I,  533-534. 

»»  Ibid.,  1,  534. 

*i  Ibid.,  I,  541.  The  Ordinance  of  1784,  not  yet  superseded  by  that  of  1787,  provided 
for  the  admission  of  each  western  state  as  soon  as  its  population  equalled  that  of  the  least 
populous  of  the  original  states,  while  the  Articles  of  Confederation  gave  each  state  one  vote. 

"'Ibid.,  I.  560. 

"Ibid,,  II,  3. 


48  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

curred  with  those  who  thought  some  balance  was  necessary  be- 
tween the  old  and  the  new  States.  He  contended  strenuously  that 
property  was  the  only  just  measure  of  representation."  ^*  While 
Williamson  thought  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  return  to  the  rule 
of  numbers  in  apportioning  representation,  he  believed  that  the 
"western  States  stood  on  a  different  footing"  until  their  property 
should  be  rated  as  high  as  that  of  the  Atlantic  states. ^^  Madison  and 
Mason,  whose  political  careers  in  Virginia  had  stamped  them  as 
moderate  leaders  of  the  western  section,  although  advocates  of  con- 
servative provisions  in  the  federal  instrument  of  government,  proved 
true  to  the  cause  of  the  West  in  this  contest  over  equal  rights.  The 
former,  although  generally  in  accord  with  Morris  in  the  conven- 
tion, upbraided  him  for  his  inconsistency  in  the  matter  of  repre- 
sentation. "At  the  same  time  that  he  recommended  ....  implicit 
confidence  to  the  Southern  States  in  the  Northern  majority,  he  was 
still  more  zealous  in  exhorting  all  to  a  jealousy  of  a  western  ma- 
jority." "It  must  be  imagined  that  he  determined  ....  character 
....  by  the  ....  compass."  ^^  Mason's  remarks  showed  that  he 
comprehended  that  the  issue  was  beyond  the  power  of  the  conven- 
tion to  settle  by  a  constitutional  provision.  "If  the  Western  States 
are  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  as  they  arise,  they  must  .... 
be  treated  as  equals,  and  subjected  to  no  degrading  discriminations. 
They  will  have  the  same  pride,  and  other  passions,  which  we  have ; 
and  will  either  not  unite  with,  or  will  speedily  revolt  from,  the 
Union,  if  they  are  not  in  all  respects  placed  on  an  equal  footing  with 

their  brethren He  did  not  know  but  that,  in  time,  they  would 

be  both  more  numerous  and  more  wealthy,  than  their  Atlantic 
brethren Numbers  of  inhabitants,  though  not  always  a  pre- 
cise standard  of  wealth,  was  sufficiently  so  for  every  substantial 
purpose."  "  More  open  in  avowal  of  the  right  of  the  majority  to 
rule,  and  even  more  convincing  in  logic,  was  the  argument  of 
Wilson:  "The  majority  of  the  people,  wherever  found,  ought  in 


3*  Ibicl.,  I,   542. 

's  Ibid.,  1,  560. 

^'  Ibid.,  I,  584.  "The  case  of  Pena.  had  been  mentioned  where  it  was  admitted  that  those 
who  were  possessed  of  the  power  in  the  original  settlement,  never  admitted  the  new  settlemnts. 
to  a  due  share  of  it.  England  was  a  still  more  striking  example.  The  power  there  had  long 
been  in  the  hands  of  the  boroughs,  of  the  minority  ;  who  had  opposed  &  defeated  every  reform 
which  had  been  attempted.  Virga.  was  in  a  lesser  degree  another  example.  With  regard  to 
the  Western  States,  he  was  clear  &  firm  in  opinion  that  no  unfavorable  distinctions  were  ad- 
missable  either  in  point  of  justice  or  policy."    Madison,  ibid. 

»'  Ibid.,   I,   578-579. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  EQUALITY  49 

all  questions,  to  govern  the  minority.  If  the  interior  country  should 
acquire  this  majority,  it  will  not  only  have  the  right,  but  will  avail 
itself  of  it,  whether  we  will  or  no.   This  jealousy  misled  the  policy 

of  Great  Britain  with  regard  to  America Like  consequences 

will  result  on  the  part  of  the  interior  settlements,  if  like  jealousy 
and  policy  be  pursued  on  ours He  could  not  agree  that  prop- 
erty was  the  sole  or  primary  object  of  government  and  society. 
The  cultivation  and  improvement  of  the  human  mind  was  the 
most  noble  object."  ^^ 

There  is  no  way  of  determining  whether  the  real  inclination 
of  the  majority  in  the  convention  was  more  toward  the  views  of 
Morris  or  of  Wilson.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  a  conviction  that 
the  West  could  not  be  kept  in  permanent  subordination  outweighed 
the  desires  of  members.  At  any  rate,  Gerry's  motion  was  re- 
jected by  a  vote  of  four  states  to  five.^^  But  the  matter  was  not 
yet  disposed  of.  The  Committee  of  Detail,  governed,  one  may  sup- 
pose, partly  by  the  vote  on  Gerry's  motion,  and  perhaps  even  more 
by  knowledge  of  the  pledge  of  Congress  made  in  1780  and  the 
terms  of  the  Virginia  cession,  reported  a  clause  providing  for  the 
admission  of  new  states  on  terms  of  equality  with  the  original 
states.*"  The  opponents  of  equality  were  not  yet  beaten,  however, 
and  secured  the  adoption  of  a  substitute  provision  permitting  Con- 
gress to  admit  new  states,  and  omitting  the  phrase  concerning 
equality.  The  acceptance  of  the  substitute  may  indicate  considerable 
sympathy  with  the  views  of  Morris  and  his  group."  He,  at  any 
rate,  seems  to  have  hoped  that  the  phraseology  adopted  would 
leave  a  doubt  as  to  the  right  of  new  states  to  equal  rank  in  the 
Union,  and  so  enable  Congress,  when  admitting  new  members,  to 
impose  terms  in  behalf  of  the  vested  interests  of  the  original 
states.*^   Contemporaneously  with  the  deliberations  of  the  conven- 


es/bid.,  I,  605. 

'*  Ihid.,  II,  3.  Cf.  Sherman  on  Gerry's  motion :  "We  are  providing  for  our  posterity 
....  who  would  be  as  likely  to  be  citizens  of  new  Western  States,  as  of  the  old  States.  On 
this  consideration  alone,  we  ought  to  make  no  such  discrimination."  To  which  Gerry  replied: 
"There  was  a  rage  for  emigration  from  the  Eastern  States  to  the  Western  Country  and  he  did 
not  wish  those  remaining  behind  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  Emigrants.  Besides  foreigners 
are  resorting  to  that  Country,  and  it  is  uncertain  what  turn  things  may  take  there."    Ihid. 

*<^  Ibid.,   11,   188. 

*''■  Ibid.,  II,  454-455.  The  motion  to  substitute  was  made  by  Morris,  and  the  portion 
referred  to  was  passed  nevi.  con. 

*-  In  1803  Morris  declared  his  belief  that  Congress  might  acquire  territory  to  be  held 
in  permanent  dependence,  but  could  not  admit  new  states  from  such  territory.  "In  wording 
the    third    section    of    the    fourth    article,"    he    says,    "I    went    as    far    as    circumstances    would 


50  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

tion,  however,  the  Confederation  Congress  was  framing  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787,  in  which  was  renewed  the  pledge  of  ultimate  state- 
hood on  equal  terms  with  the  old  states,  for  the  divisions  of  the 
Northwest  Territory.  One  of  the  early  acts  of  Congress  after  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution  was  the  repassage  of  this  ordinance, 
and  almost  at  the  same  time  the  final  cession  of  North  Carolina 
bound  Congress  to  a  similar  policy  in  dealing  with  the  Tennessee 
area.  Thus  the  cause  of  western  liberty  gained  an  impetus  which 
boded  ill  for  any  Atlantic  groups  which  might  oppose  expansion 
or  whose  interests  should  conflict  with  those  of  the  new  West  in 
the  day  of  its  power. 


permit  to  establish  the  exclusion."  Sparks,  J.,  Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  III,  192.  It  is  not 
clear  that  he  believed  in  a  similar  power  over  states  erected  within  the  original  territory  of  the 
Union, 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM 

The  perpetuation  in  the  Federalist  party  of  many  of  the  old 
views  and  policies  of  the  coastal  class  foredoomed  it  to  destruction 
through  the  growth  of  the  West,  which  meant  the  growth  of  the 
agrarian  interest  and  of  the  belief  in  the  political  equality  of  men. 
Federalism  proved  to  be  almost  non-expansive,  the  new  settle- 
ments being  uncongenial  soil  for  much  that  the  party  represented, 
and  it  became  consciously  opposed  to  western  development.  This 
opposition  was  foreshadowed,  as  our  study  should  already  have 
made  clear,  even  before  the  elements  of  Federalism  coalesced  into 
a  party.  It  was  men  who  later  on  were  members  of  that  party  who 
showed  apprehension  of  the  consequences  of  admitting  new  states, 
when  that  question  was  discussed  in  the  Confederation  congress 
and  in  the  constitutional  convention.^  The  leaders  of  Federalism 
were  discerning  men,  and  suffered  from  no  illusions  concerning 
the  effects  of  the  growth  of  the  West.  The  character  of  the  trans- 
montane  settlements  when  the  constitution  went  into  effect  was 
well  calculated  to  arouse  their  apprehensions,  for  the  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  frontiersmen  came  chiefly  from  that  stock  which 
had  so  long  challenged  the  claims  of  the  tidewater  section,  and  had 
given  birth  to  the  American  ideal  of  democracy.  During  the  days 
when  parties  were  forming  on  a  national  scale,  the  West  tended 
naturally  towards  Republicanism.  It  cast,  indeed,  a  few  votes  in 
favor  of  the  constitution,  but  the  test  of  Federalist  policy  soon 
proved  the  real  affinity  of  the  pseudo-federalism  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  to  be  the  party  of  Jefferson.  The  West  found  much 
more  to  condemn  than  to  praise  in  the  measures  of  the  new  gov- 
ernment. Hamilton's  financial  system  was  generally  disliked  and 
the  whisky  tax  was  peculiarly  odious.  Even  in  those  matters  which 
were  designed  to  promote  western  interests  the  policy  of  the  gov- 


1  See  above,  46-49.  All  of  the  men  quoted  as  opposing  the  equality  of  the  western 
states  acted  with  the  Federalist  party  during  all  or  part  of  the  last  decade  of  the  century. 
Cf.  Beard,  Economic  Origins,  Chap.  2.  The  views  of  Morris  and  his  supporters  were  the  nat- 
ural views  of  the  old  seaboard  governing  class  both  North  and  South,  but  the  union  of  planters 
and  farmers  in  the  Republican  party  in  the  South  caused  Federalism  to  stand  out  more  and 
more  as  the  "eastern"  party, 

51 


52  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

ernment  did  not  conciliate.  The  ineffectiveness  of  the  early  efforts  to 
pacify  the  Indians  and  to  secure  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
and  the  surrender  of  the  northwest  posts  persuaded  the  people  that 
the  federal  government  was  indifferent  to  their  interests.^  South 
of  the  Ohio  Federalism  was  never  a  force  to  be  seriously  reckoned 
with;  the  rare  references  to  adherents  of  the  party  prove  that  it 
was  almost  non-existent,  and  as  time  passed  it  lost  rather  than 
gained  in  strength.  The  treaties  of  1795  were  made  the  text  of 
an  exhortation  of  the  region  by  Washington  in  his  farewell  ad- 
dress, but  whatever  favorable  disposition  may  have  been  excited 
thus  was  more  than  counterbalanced  soon  after  by  the  passage  of 
the  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts.^  The  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798 
may  be  accepted  as  the  public  confirmation  of  the  people  of  the 
Southwest  in  the  Republican  creed.* 


2  The  feeling  of  the  inhabitants  of  Kentucky  on  these  matters  is  well  described  in  Mc- 
Elroy,  E.  M.,  Kentucky  in  the  Nation's  History,  Chap.  7. 

3  "The  inhabitants  of  our  western  country  have  lately  had  a  useful  lesson  on  this  head; 
they  have  seen,  in  the  negotiation  by  the  executive,  and  in  the  unanimous  ratification  by  the 
Senate,  of  the  treaty  with  Spain,  and  in  the  universal  satisfaction  at  that  event,  throughout 
the  United  States,  a  decisive  proof  how  unfounded  were  the  suspicions  propagated  among 
them  of  a  policy  in  the  general  government  and  in  the  Atlantic  States  unfriendly  to  their 
interests  in  regard  to  the  Mississippi ;  they  have  been  witnesses  to  the  formation  of  two 
treaties,  that  with  Great  Britain,  and  that  with  Spain,  which  secure  to  them  everything  they 
could  desire,  in  respect  to  our  foreign  relations,  towards  confirming  their  prosperity." — Richard- 
son, J.  D.,  A  Compilation  of  the  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  I,  217.  The  reference 
to  the  British  treaty  was  unfortunate,  as  the  people  of  the  West  did  not  consider  it  favorable 
to  them.    See  next  note. 

*  There  seem  to  have  been  a  few  admirers  of  Hamilton's  policies  in  Tennessee  in  the 
early  nineties,  and  Genet's  partisans,  by  their  excesses,  produced  a  mild  reaction  in  Kentucky 
favorable  to  the  administration.  Phelan,  J.,  Tennessee,  241-242 ;  Shaler,  N.,  Kentucky,  129. 
Senator  Marshall,  of  Kentucky,  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Federalist  group.  He  saw  ad- 
vantages for  the  West  in  Jay's  treaty  and  voted  for  its  ratification,  contributing,  moreover,  a 
series  of  essays  in  vindication  of  the  treaty  to  the  Kentucky  Gazette  during  the  winter  of 
1795-1796.  But  the  vast  preponderance  of  opinion  remained  unfavorable.  McElroy,  Kentucky, 
loc.  cit.  There  were  even  two  Federalists  in  the  Lexington  region  who  dared  publicly  to  de- 
fend the  policy  of  the  administration  in  passing  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts.  The  local  aspects 
of  this  controversy  are  discussed,  ibid..  Chap.  8.  As  late  as  the  period  of  the  Burr  Conspiracy, 
"a  Mr.  Wood,  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  was  invited  to  Kentucky  and  made  editor  of  The 
Western  World,  a  newspaper  devoted  to  the  interests  of  Federalism." — Ambler,  C.  H.,  Thomas 
Hitchie,  38. 

Naturally,  some  of  the  early  western  officials  holding  their  positions  by  presidential 
appointment  were  of  the  Federalist  faith  ;  e.  g..  Governor  Blount,  of  the  Territory  South  of  the 
Ohio  River,  and  St.  Clair,  governor  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  as  well  as  minor  officials. 
See  below,  65,  /.  n.  15. 

Michaux,  returning  from  Tennessee  in  1796,  encountered  one  Mansko  who  may  have 
been  a  Federalist,  as  he  was  "a  declared  enemy  of  the  French  because,  he  said,  they  have 
killed  their  King."  Michaux  would  not  accept  his  offer  of  supper,  and  was  mortified  because 
the  inclement  weather  obliged  him  to  spend  the  night  in  the  house.  "But  I  slept  on  my  Deer 
skin  and  paid  for  the  Maize  he  supplied  me  with."  In  1802  Michaux  declares  concerning  John 
Adams :  "His  memory  is  not  held  in  great  veneration  in  Upper  Carolina  and  the  Western 
States  ....  where  nobody  durst  confess  himself  publicly  attached  to  the  federal  party."— 
Michaux,  F.  A.,  Travels  to  the  Westward   (in  Thwaites,  R.  G.,  Early  Western  Travels,  III),  94. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  63 

Meantime  Federalism  had  shown  its  disposition  towards  the 
admission  of  new  states.  The  occasion  was  Tennessee's  applica- 
tion for  statehood  in  1796.  The  people  of  the  "Territory  South  of 
the  Ohio  River,"  as  it  was  officially  designated,  acting  under  an 
ordinance  of  the  territorial  legislature,  without  authorization  of 
Congress,  had  held  a  convention  and  adopted  a  constitution  under 
which  they  claimed  recognition.^  Congress  was  pledged  to  grant 
eventual  statehood,  not  only  by  the  resolution  of  1780,°  but  by  the 
terms  of  North  Carolina's  cession  which  imposed  the  same  con- 
ditions stiplated  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787  for  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory. Not  venturing  to  impugn  these  pledges  openly,  the  Fed- 
eralists professed  friendship  for  the  statehood  aspirations  of  the 
people  of  the  territory,  and  confined  their  objections  to  insistence 
upon  safe  precedent,  since  "in  a  few  years,  other  States  would  be 
rising  up  in  the  Western  wilderness,  and  claiming  their  right  to 
admission,"  and  "it  was  of  considerable  moment  to  the  United 
States,  that  a  proposition  which  admitted  a  new  State  to  the  equal 
rights  in  one  important  branch  of  government  in  the  affairs  of  the 
nation  should  be  seriously  considered  and  grounded  on  clear  con- 
stitutional right."  ^  They  maintained  that  action  by  Congress  must 
precede  the  organization  of  a  state  government,  and  pointed  out 
that  it  was  quite  within  the  power  of  Congress,  by  dividing  the 
territory  into  two  states,  to  "leave  less  than  sixty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants in  either,  and  consequently  deprive  them  of  any  claim  what- 
ever to  admission  into  the  Union  at  this  time."  ^  In  reality,  the 
Federalists  had  no  desire  to  increase  the  number  of  Republican 
states,  as  such  a  division  would  ultimately  have  done,  and  sought 
only  the  advantage  which  would  accrue  to  their  party  through  de- 
lay. They  believed  the  eagerness  of  their  opponents  to  grant  rec- 
ognition to  be  due  to  the  aid  which  the  electoral  vote  of  the  new 
state  would  give  in  the  election  of  Jefferson,^  and  wished  to  delay 


^  Portions  of  the  following  pages  follow  closely  an  earlier  study  by  the  present  writer 
entitled  "Federalism  and  the  West,"  in  Turnei   Essays  in  American  History,   113-135. 

*  Above,  45,  /.  n.   18. 

"!  Speech    of    William    Smith,    a    South    Carolina    Federalist.     Annals   of    Congress,    Fourth 
Cong.,   1   sess.,  1300-1304. 
8  Ibid. 

*  "No  doubt  this  is  but  one  twig  of  the  electioneering  cabal  for  Mr.  Jefferson."  Chauncey 
Goodrich  to  Oliver  Wolcott,  Sr.,  quoted  by  Phelan,  Tennessee,  188.  Jeffei-son  called  the  Tennes- 
see constitution  the  "least  imperfect  and  the  most  republican  of  the  state  constitutions." — 
Caldwell,  J.  W.,  "John  Ball  of  Tennessee,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Rev.  IV,  652  et  seq.  The  course  of 
the  Federalists  in  opposing  the  admission  of  the  state  "had  the  effect  of  confirming  her  Re- 
publicanism. The  people  were  indignant  on  account  of  the  opposition,  and  for  many  years 
no  public  man   in  Tennessee   dared  to   admit  that   he   entertained   Federalist   principles."    Ibid. 


54  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

recognition  long  enough  to  deprive  the  Republicans  of  three  elec- 
toral votes  in  the  presidential  campaign  then  in  progress.  In  the 
Senate,  Rufus  King  presented  a  committee  report  which  declared 
Tennessee,  for  want  of  action  by  Congress,  not  yet  entitled  to  ad- 
mission.^*^ This  report  was  adopted,  and  by  a  vote  of  15  to  8  the 
Senate  passed  a  bill  reported  later  from  King's  committee  for 
"laying  out  into  one  State  the  territory  ceded  by  the  State  of  North 
Carolina."  ^^  Meantime,  however,  by  a  vote  of  43  to  30,  the  House 
took  action  in  favor  of  immediate  recognition,  and  in  the  end  the 
Senate  passed  the  House  bill.^^  On  the  whole,  the  Federalists  went 
as  far  as  they  could,  in  the  Tennessee  affair,  to  show  their  antip- 
athy for  new  western  states;  their  conduct  was  what  one  would 
expect  in  the  light  of  the  antecedents  of  the  party.  They  displayed 
a  willingness  to  prolong  the  territorial  status  which  was  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  Republican  view  of  it  as  a  "degraded  situation," 
lacking  "a  right  essential  to  freemen — the  right  of  being  repre- 
sented in  Congress."  ^^ 

South  of  the  Ohio  Federalism  proved  incapable  of  being 
grafted  upon  a  democratic  stock.  North  of  the  river  it  was  sub- 
jected to  a  different  kind  of  test.  In  that  portion  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  which  became,  the  State  of  Ohio,  it  failed  to  hold  its 
own  as  a  colonizing  force  in  competition  with  democracy  of  the 
type  which  settled  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Yet  the  Federalists 
were  the  first  on  the  ground:  the  New  England  veterans  who  fol- 
lowed Putnam  to  Marietta  found  themselves,  in  the  period  of  nas- 
cent parties,  in  sympathy  with  their  eastern  relatives.^*  In  the 
settlements  around  Cincinnati,  also,  were  many  easterners  who  in- 
clined to  similar  views,  and  the  pioneers  who  came  a  little  later 
to  the  Western  Reserve  and  eastern  Michigan  were  from  the 
strongholds  of  Federalism.   Arthur  St.  Clair,  the  territorial  gov- 


10  Annals,  Fourth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  91-94. 
11 /bid..  97,  109. 

12  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  positively  the  politics  of  the  less  prominent  congressmen  of 
that  period,  and  vote  analysis  on  party  lines  is  of  doubtful  value  because  of  incompleteness. 
The  House  vote  shows  17  Republicans  for  this  bill  and  only  one  against ;  Federalists,  two  for 
and  12  against.  Although  less  than  half  of  those  voting  are  accounted  for  in  this  division,  the 
party  alignment  seems  to  be  clear.  The  vote  in  the  Senate  was  a  tie,  which  was  determined 
favorably  by  the  ballot  of  acting-president  Livermore.  The  chagrin  of  the  Federalists  at  Liver- 
more's  action  is  manifest  in  the  letter  of  Goodrich,  cited  above,  note  9. 

13  Madison.    Ibid.,    1308-1309. 

1*  New  England  looked  rather  coldly  upon  the  Ohio  Company's  project  of  colonization, 
fearing  a  rapid  drainage  of  population.  "Nathan  Dane  favored  it,  in  part  because  he  hoped 
that  planting  such  a  colony  in  the  West  might  keep  at  least  that  part  of  it  tru«  to  'Eastern 
politics.'  "    Roosevelt,  Winning  of  th«  West,  III,  256-257. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  55 

ernor,  Winthrop  Sargent,  the  secretary,  and  Jacob  Burnet,  one  of 
the  judges,  supported  Federalism.^^  St.  Clair  entered  the  lists  as 
a  pamphleteer  in  defence  of  the  Adams  administration.^^  The 
sentiment  of  these  early  days  is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  the  legis- 
lature voted  a  complimentary  address  to  President  Adams  in  1798 
with  but  five  dissenting  voices.^^  These  five  votes,  however,  were 
ominous  of  approaching  discord.  Into  the  Cincinnati  region  and 
the  Virginia  military  district  had  been  pouring  a  tide  of  southern 
immigrants  who  were  imbued  with  the  feeling  that  the  dependent 
territorial  status  was  a  "degraded  situation,"  and  with  charac- 
teristic impatience  at  arbitrary  power  the  leaders  of  this  element 
soon  clashed  with  St.  Clair.  The  result  was  the  firm  conviction 
that  they  should  never  secure  fair  treatment  under  the  territorial 
regime,  and  a  demand  for  early  statehood  as  a  means  of  obtain- 
ing full  self-government.^^  St.  Clair,  true  to  his  Federalist  in- 
stincts, distrusted  the  classes  to  whom  he  foresaw  control  would 
fall  in  that  event.  To  him  they  seemed  an  indigent  and  ignorant 
people,  ill  qualified  to  form  a  government  and  constitution  for 
themselves,  and  too  remote  from  the  seat  of  government  to  feel  a 
wholesome  respect  for  the  federal  power.  "Fixed  political  princi- 
ples they  have  none Their  government  would  most  probably 

be  democratic  in  form  and  oligarchic  in  its  execution,  and  more 
troublesome  and  more  opposed  to  the  measures  of  the  United  States 
than  even  Kentucky."  "  Observing  the  preponderance  of  southern- 
ers among  the  newcomers  in  portions  of  the  Territory,  he  fell  back 
upon  the  time-honored  devices  of  ruling  minorities,  and  proposed 
to  Timothy  Pickering,  the  Secretary  of  State,  a  departure  from  the 


1'  Sargent  was  of  Massachusetts  birth  and  a  veteran  of  the  Revolution.  Becoming  inter- 
ested in  the  Ohio  Company  of  Associates,  he  acted  as  surveyor  for  the  Company  in  1786.  Upon 
the  organization  of  the  Territory,  he  was  appointed  secretary,  holding  the  office  until  he  was 
made  governor  of  the  new  Mississippi  Territory,  in  1798.  His  Federalism  made  him  so  unpopu- 
lar with  his  Republican  neighbors  in  Mississippi  that  Jefferson  removed  him.  Thwaites,  Early 
Western  Travels,  IV,  323,  /.  n. 

Burnet  was  a  native  of  New  Jersey,  a  Princeton  graduate,  and  by  profession  a  lawyer. 
In  explanation  of  his  Federalist  principles  he  tells  us  "He  had  more  confidence  in  the  men 
who  formed  the  Constitution  than  in  their  opponents,  who  had  uniformly  resisted  its  adoption 
and  opposed  its  measures."  Burnet,  J.,  Notes  on  the  Early  Settlement  of  the  North-western 
Territory,  297-298. 

i«  Smith,  W.  H.,  St.  Clair  Papers,  II,  442. 

"  Ibid.,  I,  213  ;  11,  484. 

18  "We  shall  never  have  fair  play  while  Arthur  and  his  Knights  of  the  Round  Table  sit  at 
the  head."  Extract  from  a  letter  of  Judge  Symmes,  June  24,  1802,  ibid.,  I,  241.  In  the  same 
letter  Symmes  says  that  one  of  his  Cincinnati  correspondents  asserts  that  the  papers  there 
print  everything  for  the  "Aristocrats"  and  only  now  and  then  a  piece  for  the  "Democrats." 

^»  St  Clair  to  James  Ross,  Dec.,  1799.    Ibid.,  II,  481-483. 


56  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

plan  of  division  laid  down  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  "in  such  a 
manner  as  to  make  the  upper  or  Eastern  division  surely  Federal, 
and  form  a  counterpoise  ....  to  those  who  are  unfriendly  to  the 
General  Government."  ^°  Upon  reflection  he  abandoned  this  proj- 
ect, perceiving  that  "the  eastern  division  is  too  thinly  inhabited, 
and  the  design  would  be  too  evident,"  and,  as  suggested  in  the 
Tennessee  debate,  proposed  a  line  which,  while  leaving  each  por- 
tion "sL  sulRcient  number  of  inhabitants  to  continue  in  the  present 
[second  territorial]  stage  of  government,"  would  keep  them  in  a 
colonial  state  for  a  good  many  years  to  come."  -^  Although  one  of 
the  most  violent  of  the  Federalists  in  his  antipathy  towards  the 
West,  Pickering,  for  some  reason,  instead  of  lending  himself  to 
St.  Clair's  scheme,  submitted  the  letter  to  William  Henry  Harri- 
son, delegate  to  Congress  from  the  Northwest  Territory,  on  whose 
recommendation  a  division  was  made  (May,  1800)  in  accordance 
with  the  Ordinance.  Hoping  to  secure  a  reconsideration  by  Con- 
gress, St.  Clair's  partisans  next  (November,  1801)  carried  through 
the  territorial  legislature  a  boundary  act  assenting  to  a  division 
which  would  promote  the  governor's  plan,  and  Fearing,  Harrison's 
successor  as  territorial  delegate,  was  instructed  to  seek  the  ap- 
proval of  Congress.  Meantime,  the  Jeffersonian  regime  had  been 
inaugurated  at  Washington,  and  St.  Clair's  opponents  met  the 
issue  by  appealing  to  their  friends  at  the  national  capital,  not  only 
to  reject  the  boundary  act,  but  to  take  steps  favorable  to  the  ad- 
mission of  the  state. 

The  quarrel  of  the  Federalists  and  Republicans  in  Ohio,  now 
transferred  to  the  larger  arena  of  Congress,  bade  fair  to  become 
a  national  party  issue.  It  was  predicted  that  Federalists  would  op- 
pose admission,  because  the  increase  of  western  and  southern 
states  accrued  to  the  advantage  of  their  opponents. ^^  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Republicans  were  eager  to  add  to  their  party  strength 
three  electoral  votes  which  might  be  needed  in  the  contest  of  1804. 


20  This  letter  has  been  lost.  St.  Clair  gives  a  summary  in  his  communication  to  Ross, 
cited  above. 

21  C/.  letter  to  Woodbridge:  "I  ventured  to  open  to  [Todd,  of  Trumbull  County]  my 
opinion  that  ....  many  advantages  would  flow  to  the  upper  eastern  division  ....  by  pro- 
posed lines  ....  Being  settled  entirely  by  the  people  from  the  eastward  ....  as  they 
would  forever  have  the  preponderancy  over  the  other  parts  of  that  district,  it  would  be  in 
their  power  to  introduce  those  laws  and  customs,  and  fix  them  so  as  they  coul(l  never  be  over- 
thrown .  .  .  ."     [Italics  mine].    Ibid.,   543-549. 

"-  Ibid.,  I,  238,  quoting  R.  J.  Meigs,  Sr. :  "The  Federalists  will  oppose  it,  because  a  mul- 
tiplication of  western  and  southern  States  will  multiply  Republican  Senators." 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  57 

Approval  of  the  boundary  act  was  decisively  refused  on  January 
27,  1802,  only  five  votes  being  recorded  in  its  favor;  and  the  next 
day  the  first  steps  towards  a  statehood  bill  were  taken  under  a 
motion  of  the  zealous  Republican  Giles  of  Virginia.-^  In  the  de- 
bate which  ensued  the  expected  Federalist  opposition  failed  to  ap- 
pear. Roger  Griswold,  of  Connecticut,  was  allowed,  almost  un- 
supported, to  voice  the  protest  of  the  minority.  In  the  Tennessee 
debate,  the  Federalists  held  that  an  act  of  Congress  must  precede 
the  formation  of  a  state  government  by  the  people  of  a  territory; 
now  Griswold  maintained  that  the  passage  of  an  act  giving  the 
assent  of  Congress  to  the  formation  of  a  constitution,  upon  the 
petition  of  individuals,  and  contrary  to  the  wish  of  the  legislature 
as  implied  in  the  boundary  act,  was  an  unwarranted  interference 
with  the  concerns  of  the  people  of  the  territory."*  The  Republicans 
maintained,  as  in  1796,  that  territorial  governments  "were  arbi- 
trary at  best,  and  ought  not  to  exist  longer  than  they  could  with 
propriety  be  dispensed  with.  They  were  opposed  to  the  genius  of 
the  people  of  this  country The  people  resident  in  the  Terri- 
tory had  emigrated  from  the  different  States  in  the  Union,  where 
they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  enjoying  the  benefits  of  a  free  form 
of  government;  they  no  doubt  looked  forward  to  a  very  short 
period,  at  which  they  might  again  enjoy  the  same  as  pointed  out 
by  the  Ordinance  ....  but  if  the  doctrine  now  contended  for  in 
opposition,  shall  prevail  in  this  House,  all  their  hopes  are  blasted," 
for  it  was  "not  to  be  supposed  that  men  who  have  power  to  nullify 
every  act  of  the  people,  will  ever  sanction  one  to  put  an  end  to  their 
own  political  existence."  -^  In  support  of  this  contention  the  bound- 
ary act  of  the  territorial  legislature  was  cited. 


^^  Annals,  Seventh  Cong.,  1  sess.,  465-6,  469. 

-*' Ibid.,  1104-1105.  Goddard,  also  of  Connecticut,  seconded  Griswold's  argument.  Ibid., 
1118. 

2s  Speech  of  R.  Williams,  of  North  Carolina.  Ibid.,  1107-1110.  The  Ordinance  of  1787 
pledged  the  admission  of  the  parts  into  which  it  provided  that  the  Northwest  Territory  should 
be  divided,  whenever  the  population  of  any  part  reached  60,000.  Ohio  had  not  yet  reached 
this  population,  and  the  speech  of  Williams  indicates  the  danger  of  delay  involved  in  the 
proposal  of  the  territorial  legislature.  Of  course,  if  no  change  in  boundaries  were  made,  state- 
hood would  soon  be  due  under  the  provisions  of  the  Ordinance,  and  Williams's  argument  would 
hardly  be  applicable. 

Griswold's  plea  was  not  consistent  with  the  Federalist  contention  of  1796.  Then  it  was 
asserted  that  the  action  of  the  territorial  legislature  should  not  be  taken  as  conclusive  evidence 
of  the  wish  of  the  people  of  Tennessee,  since  many  were  known  to  oppose  statehood ;  while 
now  Griswold  maintained  that  the  action  of  the  legislature  was  the  only  evidence  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  territory  which  Congress  should  notice.  In  both  cases  the 
argument  was  evidently  shaped  by  the  desire  to  restrain  the  growth  of  an  adverse  interest. 
The  final  vote  on  the  Ohio  statehood  bill  shows  more  clearly  than  the  debate  the  partisan  na- 


58  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

The  Ohio  statehood  bill  as  passed  gave  further  offence  to  the 
Federalists  by  separating  what  is  now  eastern  Michigan  from  the 
new  state.  This  they  believed  to  have  been  done  from  the  fear 
that  that  district,  where  Federalists  were  numerous,  would,  if  in- 
cluded, give  a  majority  against  statehood  or  carry  the  new  state 
into  the  Federalist  column.  While  the  matter  was  under  considera- 
tion in  committee  of  the  whole.  Bayard  objected  to  cutting  off  the 
Michigan  portion  of  the  territory  about  to  be  admitted,  after  the 
inhabitants  had  been  advanced  to  the  self-governing  stage.  To  this 
Giles  replied  that  the  northern  portion  of  the  territory  could  not  be 
a  permanent  part  of  the  new  state,  and  that  it  would  be  unjust  to 
allow  its  inhabitants  a  voice  in  forming  a  constitution  for  the 
people  of  the  southern  portion.  By  being  attached  to  Indiana  Terri- 
tory, moreover,  it  would  not  revert  to  the  first  stage. ^'^  The  people 
of  Detroit  and  vicinity  remonstrated  against  the  action  of  Con- 
gress, claiming  the  right  to  be  included  in  the  new  state,  but  were 
reconciled  by  tftt't'i'ospeot  of  a  territorial  government  seated  at 
Detroit,  with  offices  to  be  distributed  among  local  men.^^  It  is  sig- 
nificant of  the  extent  to  which  Federally  had  invaded  the  West 
that  a  gerrymander  of  this  sort  was  necessary*to  insure  I^p^li- 
can  ascendancy  in  the  first  state  created  in  the  old  Northwest. 

But  the  passage  of  the  enabling  act  was  the  beginning  of  dis- 
aster for  the  Ohio  Federalists.  Their  delegates  in  the  constitutional 
convention  were  outnumbered  nearly  three  to  one.^*  St.  Clair  was 
dismissed  by  Jefferson  with  scant  courtesy  before  the  expiration 
of  his  term,  for  criticising  the  action  of  Congress  in  a  speech  be- 
fore the  convention. 23  The  convention,  true  to  the  current  creed  of 
democracy,  and  mindful  of  the  conflicts  with  the  late  governor. 


ture  of  the  issue.  The  vote  of  those  whose  politics  have  been  ascertained  shows  the  Republicans 
14  to  1  in  favor  of  it,  with  7  Federalists  opposed.    Ibid.,   1161-1162. 

-•  Ibid..  1120-1122.  "The  inhabitants  of  that  part  of  the  Territory  with  scarcely  one 
exception,  were  also  decidedly  opposed  in  politics  to  the  party  which  had  just  possessed 
themselves  of  the  administration  of  the  general  government.  They  were  also  numerous. 
....  It  was,  therefore,  almost  certain,  that  if  they  were  united  with  the  opposers  of  the 
proposed  constitution,  in  the  Southern  part  of  the  district,  they  would  reject  the  law  of  Con- 
gress, and  prevent  the  formation  of  a  State  government.  But  if  this  should  not  be  the  case, 
still  they  would  become  citizens  of  the  new  State,  which,  with  the  aid  of  their  numbers  and 
influence,  would  most  probably  be  placed  in  the  ranks  of  opposition  to  the  administration  of 
the  general  government,  by  the  men  then   in  power."    Burnet,  Notes,   337. 

"  Ibid. 

^'  An  account  of  the  convention,  with  source  material,  is  given  in  Smith,  St.  Clair  Papers, 
I,  Chap.  9  ;  II,  586  et  seq. 

'*  Charges  against  St.  Clair  had  been  presented  to  the  President  by  his  enemies  early 
in  the  year  1802,  but  at  that  time  Jeflferson  had  been  satisfied  by  the  defence  oflEered.  Ibid., 
I,  244-246:  II,  692-601. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  59 

framed  a  constitution  which  entrusted  large  powers  to  the  legisla- 
ture, but  reduced  the  governor  to  a  figurehead.  In  the  first  elec- 
tion the  Republicans  carried  even  Marietta  by  a  large  majority, 
most  of  the  disheartened  Federalists  casting  blank  ballots  in  view 
of  the  certainty  of  defeat.^"  The  rout  of  the  party  by  these  occur- 
rences was  so  complete  that  it  soon  ceased  to  act  as  a  political 
organization.  Among  the  politicians  of  the  early  days  were  many 
men  from  New  England,  and  especially  Connecticut,  but  they  either 
found  that  their  Federalism  barred  the  way  to  political  preferment 
in  the  social  and  political  atmosphere  of  the  West,  or  had  im- 
bibed the  principles  of  democracy  in  their  earlier  homes.  At  all 
events  the  politically  ambitious,  whether  Virginian,  New  Yorker, 
Yankee,  Scotch-Irishman,  Irishman,  or  Englishman,  was  speedily 
drawn  into  the  party  of  democracy.  All  of  these  stocks  were  repre- 
sented in  the  governor's  chair  within  a  quarter-century,  but  few 
men  who  bore  the  party  title  of  Federalist  attained  important  of- 
fice until  about  1820,  by  which  time  that  designation  had  lost  all 
real  significance  both  East  and  West.^^ 

Yet  the  story  of  Ohio  Federalism  after  1803  is  not  one  of 
sudden  disappearance,  but  of  gradual  decline  and  fusion  with  Re- 
publicanism. Members  of  the  party  seem  to  have  been  active  lo- 
cally in  those  parts  of  the  state  where  they  were  numerous  or  party 
lines  not  too  rigidly  drawn. ^^  But  never  did  they  put  forward  their 
own  candidate  for  the  governorship.  In  1809  an  anonymous  cor- 
respondent of  the  Supporter  asserted  that  "The  federalists  of  Ohio 
not  being  ignorant  that  their  opponents  outnumber  them,  I  think 
I  may  say  five  to  one,  never  have  made  any  general  effort  against 


^^  The  Federalists  considered  plans  for  rallying  their  forces  and  making  a  fight  for  the 
election  of  St.  Clair,  but  he  refused  to  allow  his  name  to  be  used,  and  apparently  no  other 
name  afforded  even  a  fighting  chance  of  success.    Ihid.,   I,  247. 

'1  Hockett,  "Federalism  and  the  West,"  in  Turner  Essays,  128,  /.  n.,  gives  antecedents 
of  early  Ohio  politicians.  Judge  Burnet  declared :  "My  political  influence  and  that  of  my  asso- 
ciates sank  into  a  common  grave.  We  were  proscribed,  and  as  soon  as  the  plan  of  our  com- 
petitors was  consummated,  we  submitted  to  our  destiny  with  good  grace  and  withdrew  from 
all  participation."  Burnet,  Notes.  Twenty  years  later  Burnet  was  elevated  to  the  supreme 
bench  by  a  Republican  legislature. 

*2  William  McMillan  ran  as  the  party  candidate  for  Congress  in  1803,  and  received  1960 
votes  out  of  a  total  of  7518.  (Randall  &  Ryan,  History  of  Ohio,  III,  146).  In  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1804  the  electoral  ticket  of  the  party  polled  364  votes  in  the  state.  (Ibid.,  145). 
Levin  Belt,  a  Federalist,  was  chosen  one  of  the  supreme  court  justices  in  1807,  by  joint  ballot 
of  the  two  houses  (Supporter,  Aug.  11,  1810),  and  was  afterwards  for  several  years  mayor  of 
Chillicothe,  where  he  made  the  address  of  welcome  upon  the  occasion  of  Monroe's  visit  in 
1817.  (Ibid.,  Sept.  2,  1817.)  George  Nashee,  also  a  Federalist,  was  a  member  of  the  town 
council  of  Chillicothe.     (Ibid.,  Jan.   12,  1814).    These  instances  are  chosen  at  random. 


60  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

their  enemy."  ^^  Nevertheless  they  were  not  without  influence  in 
gubernatorial  elections.  It  is  significant  that  in  the  contest  be- 
tween Return  Jonathan  Meigs,  Jr.,  and  Nathaniel  Massie,  in  1806- 
1807,  the  former's  majority  was  furnished  by  those  portions  of 
northern  and  eastern  Ohio  where  settlers  from  New  England  were 
most  numerous.^*  Still  more  notable  was  the  part  taken  by  the 
Federalists  in  the  controversy  which  grew  out  of  a  decision  ren- 
dered by  the  supreme  court  in  1807,  in  which  an  act  relating  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  was  held  to  be  uncon- 
stitutional.^^ Leading  Republicans  attacked  the  judges  who  ren- 
dered this  decision,  one  of  them  being  a  Federalist,  Levin  Belt, 
much  as  Jefferson  and  his  friends  had  attacked  John  Marshall  for 
his  decision  in  the  case  of  Marbury  vs.  Madison,  and  the  Ohio 
Democracy  divided  on  the  issue.  It  became  a  factor  in  the  three- 
sided  contest  of  1808,  in  which  Huntington,  Worthington,  and 
Kirker  were  candidates  for  governor.  This  question  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  judiciary  involved  the  dogmas  of  Federalism  as  had 
no  other  issue  arising  in  the  politics  of  the  state.  One  of  their 
writers  explained:  'The  federalists,  lawyers  and  all,  believe  that 
the  courts  possess  the  power  of  declaring  the  legislative  acts  un- 
constitutional. They  consider,  that  without  this  power  in  the  judi- 
ciary, a  written  constitution  is  of  no  real  or  essential  value. — 
Hence  they  cling  to  this  principle  as  to  the  vital  stream  of  life."  ^^ 
Their  support  was  given  to  Huntington  and  he  was  elected."    In 


'3  Issue  of  Dec.  16.  The  Supporter  was  a  Federalist  newspaper,  founded  at  Chillicothe 
in  the  autumn  of  1808,  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  part  of  its  purpose  to  foster 
hopes  of  partisan  success.  Its  comment  on  state  politics  is  rare  ;  it  echoes,  by  reprinting,  the 
strictures  of  the  party  papers  to  the  eastward  on  the  foreign  policy  of  the  administration. 

**  Massie,  D.  M.,  Nathaniel  Massie,  9S-94.  After  defeating  Massie,  Meigs  was  adjudged 
ineligible  for  lack  of  the  residence  qualification,  having  been  absent  from  the  state  for  a  con- 
siderable period  within  the  four  years  preceding  his  election,  and  the  vacancy  was  filled  by 
Kirker  as  acting-governor.  Meigs  was  of  Connecticut  birth.  He  was  one  of  the  settlers  of 
Marietta,  in  1788,  where  he  practiced  law.  Congressional  Biographical  Directory.  His  political 
conduct  in  early  life  was  so  moderate  that  he  is  variously  described  as  a  conservative  Demo- 
crat (Taylor,  Ohio  in  Congress,  40)  and  as  "originally  a  Federalist  and  supporter  of  St.  Clair" 
(Massie,  N.  Massie.  93,  94). 

SB  An  account  of  this  decision  may  be  found  in  Randall  &  Ryan,  History  of  Ohio,  III, 
166  et  seq. 

**  "A  Federal  Lawyer,"  in  Supporter,  Aug.  11,  1810. 

»■  Samuel  Huntington  was  the  adopted  heir  of  his  uncle  of  the  same  name,  the  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  governor  of  Connecticut.  He  came  to  Youngstown, 
Ohio,  in  1801,  and  afterwards  removed  to  Cleveland.  While  belonging  to  the  moderate  Repub- 
licans, he  had  the  confidence  both  of  the  Federalists  and  the  extreme  Republicans.  St.  Clair 
appointed  him  lieutenant  colonel  of  Trumbull  County.  He  served  as  delegate  to  the  state  con- 
stitutional convention,  and  was  afterwards  speaker,  senator  from  Trumbull,  and  judge  of  the 
state  supreme  court.    Whittlesey,  Charles,  Early  History  of  Cleveland,  382-384. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  61 

the  campaign  of  1810  the  claim  was  made  that  their  action  had 
controlled  the  result,  and  the  friends  of  Worthington  were  warned 
that  ill  treatment  of  the  Federalists  would  again  jeopardize  his 
election.^^  Some  effort  was  made  to  rally  the  Federalists  to  the 
support  of  Meigs,  now  again  a  candidate,  and  considerable  insight 
into  political  conditions  is  afforded  by  the  arguments  adduced  in 
his  behalf.2^  Meigs  was  elected,  and  thus  for  the  third  time  that 
candidate  succeeded  whose  moderation  won  the  favor  of  the  Fed- 
eralist voters.  To  say,  however,  that  they  acted  as  a  consistent 
group  would  be  to  go  too  far.  The  editor  of  the  Supporter  doubt- 
less spoke  for  many  of  the  apathetic  when  he  wrote :  "We  conceive 
that  Federalists  have  no  interest  in  the  present  rupture  between 
the  two  parties  styling  themselves  Republicans.  Federalists  have 
nothing  to  expect  from  either — they  have  no  hopes  of  emolument — 

no  ambitious  views  to  gratify Should  federalists  join  the 

ranks  of  either,  they  would  reap  nothing  but  discomfiture  and  dis- 
grace. Under  these  impressions  we  have  decided  to  remain  neutral 
during  the  present  electioneering  campaign."  *° 

The  Federalist  support  of  Meigs  is,  indeed,  not  so  much  evi- 
dence of  a  tendency  to  maintain  a  distinct  party  holding  the  bal- 
ance of  power  between  the  Republican  factions,  as  of  a  tendency 
to  merge  into  Republicanism  because  all  real  differences  of  opinion 
were  dissolving.  Even  on  the  judiciary  question  a  large  part  of  the 
Republicans  were  coming  to  the  Federalist  view,  while  the  ap- 
proximation of  western  Federalism  to  views  held  also  by  Republi- 
cans is  well  shown  by  the  words  of  the  same  writer  who  urged  the 
support  of  Meigs:  "You  [Federalists]  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
thinking  there  is  no  good  among  democrats,  that  the  whole  mass 


38  "A  Federal  Lawyer,"  in  Supporter,  cited  above:  "It  was  the  federalists  that  made 
HUNTINGTON  governor ;  but  the  'federal  lawyers'  never  supposed  or  represented  him  to  be  a 

federalist They  supported   him,   because   Gen.   Worthington   and   his   friends   placed  the 

controversy  upon  such  grounds  as  left  them  no  alternative.  The  same  game  seems  likely  to  be 
played  over  again,  and  I  warn  you  in  time  to  beware  of  a  similar  result." 

30  "Federalists,  you  are  not  uninterested  in  the  scenes  passing  in  review.  Your  language 
is,  'Let  the  democrats  fight  it  out  among  themselves.'  ....  Federalists  come  forward. 
....  Unite  with  moderate  Republicans.    Unite  with  all  honest  men  in  the  election  of   Judge 

Meigs The  destruction  of  federalism  is  the  whole  burden  of  their  song   [Worthington's 

supporters.]  Will  you  aid  in  the  election  of  such  a  man?  Will  you  sharpen  a  knife  to  cut 
your  own  throats?  ....  If  you  refuse  to  vote  for  Judge  Meigs,  you,  in  effect,  do  the  same. 
....  Turn  out  to  a  man  and  vote  for  Judge  Meigs.  He  is  the  least  evil  of  the  two.  He  is  a 
moderate  Republican.  His  rival  charges  him  with  being  friendly  to  federalism. — We  believe 
he  considers  them  as  men  entitled  to  civil  usage  and  the  rights  of  citizens  ....  but  we  de- 
clare again,  that  he  is  no  federalist.  Would  to  heaven  he  were,  and  not  only  he,  but  all  the 
people  of  the   land." — "Timothy  Trowell,"   "a  humble  mechanic,"   in  Supporter,    Sept.   22,   1810. 

♦»  Supporter,  June  29,  1811. 


62  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

of  democracy  is  a  polluted  lump.  Whereas,  the  great  body  of  the 
people,  among  them,  are  well  meaning,  patriotic  citizens,  and  would 
always  do  right  were  they  rightly  informed.    It  is  some  of  their 

leaders  you  ought  to  oppose The  name  I  am  not  tenacious  of. 

Throw  it  away.  Give  us  genuine  federal  principles.  Let  the  consti- 
tution be  our  polar  star.  Give  us  equal  and  righteous  laws.  Place 
honest  and  able  men  in  public  offices.  Let  them  be  Americans,  in 
contradiction  to  Englishmen  and  Frenchmen.  Let  canals  and  roads 
chequer  this  goodly  land.  Encourage  commerce,  but  more  particu- 
larly domestic  manufactures.  These  are  federal  principles.  Pursue 
these  and  we  shall  have  another  golden  age."  "  These  principles  are 
hardly  distinguishable  from  those  of  western  Republicans.  They 
make  clear  that  by  the  era  of  the  second  British  war  the  chief  ob- 
stacle to  the  amalgamation  of  parties  in  Ohio  was  prejudice.*^ 

The  bit  of  Ohio  history  which  we  have  traced  shows  that  Fed- 
eralism was  carried  westward  by  the  migrating  New  England  stock, 
and  that  Republicanism  prevailed  in  some  frontier  regions  only 
after  a  struggle.  Nevertheless,  Federalism  was  not  able  to  with- 
stand frontier  influences  long  even  in  those  regions  where  the  set- 
tlers were  exclusively  of  New  England  stock.  This  fact  appears 
from  the  study  of  the  fate  which  befell  it  in  middle  and  western 


*i  "Timothy  Trowell,"  in  Supporter,  Sept.  22,  1810. 

"  In  this  rapprochement  of  the  two  parties  doubtless  lies  the  real  explanation  of  the 
infrequency  of  the  Supporter's  comment  on  state  politics.  It  was  absorbed  by  the  contest  in 
progress  to  the  eastward.  But  on  the  eve  of  the  War  of  1812  it  ceased  to  echo  the  opposition 
of  New  England  Federalism  to  the  policy  of  the  administration.  Instead  the  editor  wrote, 
on  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  declaration  of  war :  "It  appears  that  congress  have,  at  last,  taken 
a  firm  and  decided  stand — they  have  declared  war,  and  however  we  may  differ  in  political 
sentiments  it  now  becomes  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to  cling  to  his  country  and  rise  or  fall 
with  it."  (Issue  of  July  4,  1812).  The  persistence  of  the  paper  in  its  traditional  faith  is 
shown  by  its  comment  on  the  success  of  the  Federalists  in  Maryland  in  the  autumn  of  1812, 
after  twelve  years  of  Democratic  rule,  as  affording  "a  happy  presage  of  the  returning  good 
sense  of  the  people  of  the  United  States."  (Issue  of  Oct.  24,  1812).  A  week  later  like  news 
from  New  Jersey  elicited  the  remark  "thus  are  the  good  old  times  returning."  (Issue  of 
Oct.  31). 

The  Clintonian  movement  of  1812  found  some  support  in  Ohio.  An  electoral  ticket 
headed  by  Calvin  Pease,  one  of  the  judges  who  had  joined  in  the  decision  setting  aside  the  act 
of  legislation  in  1807,  was  placed  before  the  voters  of  the  state,  and  one  man  on  this  ticket, 
William  W.  Irwin,  of  Fairfield  County,  received  3301  votes.  The  vote  for  the  Republican 
electors  varied  from  5738  to  7420.  (Supporter,  Nov.  14,  1812).  But  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  Clinton's  support  in  Ohio  was  due  to  sympathy  with  the  Peace  Party  movement,  which 
made  him  the  candidate  of  the  commercial  class  of  New  England  and  New  York,  or  to  the 
belief  that  he  would  prosecute  the  war  with  greater  vigor  than  Madison.  Although  some- 
times regarded  as  the  Federalist  candidate  in  1812,  Clinton,  in  fact,  received  support  from 
Republicans  also  under  the  impulse  of  a  variety  of  motives.  See  Hammond,  J.  D.,  History  of 
Political  Parties  in  the  State  of  New  York,  I,  298  et  seQ.  Already,  too,  Clinton's  fame  as  the 
chief  advocate  of  a  canal  connecting  the  lakes  with  the  Hudson  had  won  him  friends  in  Ohio, 
where  public  interest  responded  quickly  to  the  project  of  a  waterway  to  the  Atlantic. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  63 

New  York.  In  the  period  of  ratification  of  the  constitution,  the 
favorable  vote  in  that  state  was  cast  by  delegates  from  the  com- 
mercial regions  of  the  lower  Hudson ;  the  patroon  aristocracy  and 
their  tenants  on  the  upper  river,  and  the  German  population  of 
the  Mohawk  Valley  were  strongly  opposed  to  the  new  plan  of  gov- 
ernment. If  New  York  had  been  among  the  first  states  to  pass  upon 
the  constitution,  the  antifederalists  would  doubtless  have  prevailed, 
but  her  geographical  position  made  rejection  impracticable  in  the 
face  of  the  action  which  the  other  states  had  taken  before  her  con- 
vention met.  But  while  the  Federalist  cause  was  strengthened 
somewhat  by  this  initial  victory,  and  later  aided  by  the  use  made 
of  the  patronage  within  the  state,  they  could  hardly  have  prevailed 
over  the  democracy  led  by  George  Clinton  without  the  augmenta- 
tion of  voting  strength  which  resulted  from  the  immigration  of 
New  Englanders.  To  this  immigration  chiefly  must  be  attributed 
the  capture  of  the  state  by  the  Federalists  in  1794.  The  influx  of 
New  Englanders  during  the  nineties  affected  most  the  very  regions 
which  had  been  antifederal,  and  the  frontiers.  The  opening  of 
cheap  lands  in  New  York  drew  swarms  of  farmers  from  Connecti- 
cut and  Massachusetts,  while  the  establishment  of  new  counties  at- 
tracted to  the  county  towns  young  lawyers  and  merchants  of  Fed- 
eralist proclivities,  whose  political  talents  provided  leadership  for 
the  rural  settlers.*^  In  the  apportionment  of  1791,  the  population  of 
the  Western  District  entitled  it  to  five  of  the  twenty-four  state 
senators."  The  rapid  increase  of  freeholders,  due  chiefly  to  the 
immigration  from  New  England,  necessitated  a  reapportionment 
four  years  later,  when,  of  the  twenty  additional  senators  for  the 
whole  state,  twelve  fell  to  the  Western  District.*'  During  the  nine- 
ties, this  district  was  the  most  safely  Federalist  area  in  the  state, 
electing  candidates  of  that  party  almost  without  opposition.  By 
1798,  however.  Republican  gains  gave  warning  of  the  early  pass- 
ing of  Federalist  control  in  the  state  at  large,  and  in  the  election 
of  1800,  which  restored  the  Republicans  to  power,  the  Federalists 


*3  "The  great  influx  of  population  from  New  England  between  1790  and  1800  had  changed 

the  political  aspect  of  the  county While   the  eastern   population  seated  within    Oneida 

county,  almost  unanimously  acted  with  the  federalist  party,  the  immigration  to  Herkimer 
seems  to  have  been  more  equally  balanced,  although  a  considerable  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion which  settled  in  this  county  adhered  to  their  New  England  proclivities."  "A  republican 
lawyer  or  a  republican  merchant  was  seldom  to  be  found  in  the  country  villages  or  at  the 
county  seats  in  this  part  of  the  state." — Benton,  N.  S.,  A  History  of  Herkimer  County,  In- 
cluding the  Upper  Mohawk  Valley,  259-260. 

**  Hammond,  Political  Parties,  1,  52. 

*'Ibid..  99. 


64  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

were  defeated  even  in  the  Western  District,  which  now  became  as 
regularly  Republican  as  it  had  been  Federalist.*" 

This  change  in  the  political  complexion  of  western  New  York 
points  to  the  actual  conversion  of  Federalist  voters  to  Republican- 
ism, and  suggests  that  the  Federalism  of  the  New  England-New 
York  frontiersman  was  conventional  rather  than  vital.  As  always, 
the  appeal  of  the  wilderness  was  strongest  with  the  younger  and 
less  prosperous  men — the  very  class  least  steeped  in  the  orthodoxy 
of  their  native  communities.  Transplanted  from  its  original  en- 
vironment. Federalism  of  this  type  easily  yielded  to  the  strong 
solvents  of  the  frontier  and  blended  with  Republicanism.  The  ac- 
tual process  may  be  traced  in  some  cases  which  seem  typical.  Dur- 
ing the  two  or  three  years  preceding  1800,  there  were  in  the  as- 
sembly eight  or  ten  members  who  had  been  chosen  as  Federalists, 
but  who  were  beginning  to  lose  faith  in  the  tenets  of  that  party  and 
to  act  with  the  Republicans.*^  Among  them  was  Jedediah  Peck,  an 
uneducated  immigrant  from  Connecticut,  who  plied  the  trade  of 
surveyor  in  behalf  of  his  fellows  who  during  the  nineties  redeemed 
Otsego  County  from  the  wilderness.  "He  would  survey  your  farm 
in  the  daytime,  exhort  and  pray  in  your  family  at  night,  and  talk 
on  politics  the  rest  part  of  the  time."*^  From  the  character  of  the 
man  chosen  by  the  settlers  to  represent  them  in  the  councils  of  the 
state  some  inference  may  be  drawn  as  to  the  character  of  the  con- 
stituents. The  Old  World  traditions  of  Federalism,  which  became 
manifest  in  the  legislation  of  1798,  alienated  people  of  this  type. 
Peck  circulated  a  petition  for  the  repeal  of  the  Sedition  Law,  and 
for  this  Judge  Cooper,  the  novelist's  father,  an  ardent  Federalist, 
caused  him  to  be  arrested  and  taken,  in  the  spring  of  1800,  two 
hundred  miles  to  New  York  for  trial.  The  effect  of  such  a  spec- 
tacle upon  a  population  already  disaffected,  on  the  eve  of  a  state 
and  national  election,  is  easily  imagined.  "A  hundred  missionaries 
in  the  cause  of  democracy,  stationed  between  New  York  and 
Cooperstown,  could  not  have  done  so  much  for  the  Republican 
cause  as  this  journey  of  Jedediah  Peck  from  Otsego  to  the  capital 


■"'  1801  was  an  exception,  the  Federalists  carrying  the  district  because,  as  Hammond 
says,  of  "some  local  cause  with  which  we  are  at  present  unacquainted.  Perhaps  the  republican 
candidates,  or  some  of  them,  were  personally  unpopular."    Ibid.,  164. 

*'' Ibid..   123. 

*»Ibid.,  124. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  65 

of  the  State."  *•'  Meantime  other  influences  had  been  working  in 
the  same  direction.  Of  a  type  similar  to  Peck  was  Obadiah  Ger- 
man, member  from  the  neighboring  county  of  Chenango.^°  To  these 
waverers  Aaron  Burr  had  been  paying  court,  conscious  that  their 
espousal  of  Republicanism  would  be  an  important  factor  in  the 
winning  of  the  West.  Falling  in  as  it  did  with  the  events  narrated. 
Burr's  eflforts  were  successful,  and  in  the  decisive  campaign  of 
1800  these  counties  followed  their  converted  leaders  into  the  Re- 
publican ranks.^^  Herkimer,  another  of  this  group  of  western 
counties,  was  won  by  similar  means,  disaffection  caused  by  the 
policies  of  the  Adams  administration  coinciding  with  the  coming 
of  a  Republican  lawyer  sent  to  organize  the  democratic  movement." 
In  its  new  garb  the  Western  District  speedily  became  domi- 
nant in  state  politics.  In  1805,  German  was  the  recognized  leader 
of  the  Republicans  in  the  assembly  ;=^3  in  1809  western  New  York 
dictated  the  choice  of  United  States  senator,  German  being  elected 
over  several  prominent  competitors.^*  In  1810  the  gubernatorial 
campaign  was  admittedly  determined  by  the  same  section.  In  the 
hope  of  carrying  this  stronghold  of  the  enemy,  the  Federalists 
nominated  Jonas  Piatt,  a  pioneer  of  Whitesborough,  who  had  re- 
tained his  popularity  in  this  part  of  the  state  in  spite  of  the  revo- 
lution in  political  sentiment;  but  the  Federalists  failed  to  carry 
the  state,  or  even  the  Western  District.^^  Never  after  1796  did  New 


**  Ibid.,  132.  The  petition  was  written  by  John  Armstrong,  author  of  the  "Newburgh 
Addresses,"  who  was,  until  1798,  a  Federalist.  Alexander,  D.  S.,  Political  History  of  New 
York,  I,  89.  Armstrong  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  in  1800  almost  unanimously. 
Hammond  thinks  the  Federalists  supported  him  as  the  least  objectionable  Republican,  as  they 
could  not  elect  a  Federalist.  Hist,  of  Pol.  Parties,  I,  154.  The  conversion  of  Ambrose  Spencer, 
who  later  became  a  famous  "boss,"  dates  from  about  this  time,  a  conjectural  cause  being  that 
he  foresaw  the  decline  of  the  Federalist  party.    Alexander,  Polit.  Hist.,  I,  87. 

^°  Hammond  characterizes  German  as  uneducated,  but  distinguished  for  strong  and  vig- 
orous intellectual  powers.    Ibid.,   276.  ^^  Ibid.,   124,   134. 

^-  Benton,  History  of  Herkimer  County,  261-262.  "An  up-state  writer  frankly  avowed 
that  Jefferson  was  the  friend  of  the  farmers  and  the  enemy  of  the  financiers.  This  partisan 
publicist  ....  declared  of  the  party  leader:  'He  has  on  all  occasions  shown  himself  the  friend 
and  patron  of  agriculture.  You  then  whose  lives  are  devoted  to  agricultural  pursuits  cannot 
Burely  approve  of  those  who  unjustly  asperse  his  well-earned  reputation.  Hear  him  on  the 
subject  which  must  be  nearest  to  your  hearts,  since  it  is  most  intimately  connected  with  your 
interests.'  Here  the  writer  quoted  at  length  from  the  Notes  on  Virginia  the  passages  to  the 
effect  that  those  who  labor  in  the  earth  are  God's  chosen  people  and  the  mercantile  and  labor- 
ing element   of   the  towns   the   measure   of  a   nation's   decay." — Beard,    Economic    Origins,    367. 

^^  Hammond,  Pol.  Parties,  I,  218. 

''■Ibid.,  276. 

■"^  For  outcome  of  Piatt's  campaign  see  Hammond,  Pol.  Parties,  I,  279.  Hammond  gives 
the  following  explanation  of  the  downfall  of  the  Federalists:  "They  did  not  properly  appreci- 
ate the  intelligence  and  good  sense   of  the  mass  of  the  community It  was  this  unjust 

estimate  ....  which  carried  them  into  a  course  of  reasoning  and  action  which  resulted  in 
....     utter  overthrow."    Ibid.,  162. 


66  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

York  cast  a  Federalist  electoral  vote,^^  and  the  party  gradually 
sank  to  the  position  of  a  faction  acting  with  one  or  other  of  the 
Republican  groups  according  to  the  dictates  of  local  interest. 

The  fate  of  Federalism  on  the  Pennsylvania  frontier  is  in 
harmony  with  the  conclusions  reached  from  the  study  of  Ohio  and 
New  York.  New  England  contributed  largely  to  the  settlement  of  a 
belt  of  territory  stretching  across  northern  Pennsylvania  from  the 
Delaware  River  to  the  Ohio  line.  Connecticut,  especially,  had  been 
interested  in  the  lands  of  this  region,  to  which  she  laid  claim  under 
the  terms  of  her  charter  from  Charles  II ;  and  notwithstanding  the 
adverse  outcome  of  the  controversy  with  Pennsylvania  which  re- 
sulted, she  made  the  largest  contribution  to  the  early  settlement  of 
the  counties  on  the  upper  Susquehanna.  From  the  rest  of  New 
England,  sometimes  by  way  of  New  York,  came  most  of  the  immi- 
grants who  filled  in  the  northern  tier  of  counties,  to  Erie,  in  the 
extreme  northw^est  corner  of  the  state."  "Erie  County  became  more 
like  New  York  than  Pennsylvania."  ^^  As  in  New  York,  the  New 
England  stock  brought  with  it  the  traditional  political  faith.  Lu- 
zerne County  (which  included  also  the  present  Bradford,  Susque- 
hanna, Wyoming,  and  Lackawanna)  was  a  "veritable  hot-bed  of 
Federalism."^^  Scotch-Irish  settlers  were  intermingled  with  the 
New  Englanders,  however,  and  a  detailed  study  is  not  needed  to 
reveal  the  fact  that  Federalism  fought  a  losing  fight.®°  In  Erie 
County,  in  1807,  Snyder,  the  Republican  candidate  for  governor, 
defeated  James  Ross,  the  Federalist,  by  a  vote  of  345  out  of  a 
total  of  589.*'^    The  early  settlements  near  the  forks  of  the  Ohio 


*'  The  vote  for  De  Witt  Clinton,  in  1812,  might  be  regarded  as  an  exception  to  the 
statement  in  the  text,  since  Federalists  helped  the  Clinton  faction  carry  the  state.  The  decline 
of  the  Federalist  party  in  New  York  was  steady  until  the  period  of  international  controversy 
beginning  with  the  embargo,  when  there  was  a  partial  recovery  as  in  other  states.  In  1804 
Hamilton's  opposition  to  combination  with  the  Burr  faction  led  to  the  ill-fated  quarrel  and 
duel  in  which  he  lost  his  life.  Many  Federalists  abandoned  the  party  on  this  occasion,  con- 
sidering it  ruined.  Hamilton's  death  and  Jay's  retirement  also  left  it  without  first  rate  leader- 
ship. In  1806  most  Federalists  supported  Lewis  against  Clinton,  but  this  campaign  again  led 
many  disgusted  Federalists  to  forswear  the  party  from  that  time  forth.  The  support  of  Fed- 
eralists gave  Tompkins  the  victory  over  Lewis  in   1807.     Ibid.,   209,  235,  246. 

^  Mathews,  L.  K.,  Expansion  of  New  England,  151-152. 

•«  Ibid. 

**  Ibid.    Also  History  of  Lackawanna,  Luzerne,  and  Wyoming  Counties,  68. 

*"  In  1807,  Lycoming  County  gave  894  votes  to  the  Republican  candidate  for  the  legis- 
lature, and  441  to  the  Federalist.  The  Republican  candidate  for  sheriff  won  a  victory  over  his 
opponent  by  the  narrow  margin  of  702  to  694,  but  the  Republican  commissioner  was  elected 
by  a  vote  of  751,  his  rival  polling  only  588. — Meginness,  Official  Report  of  Proceedings  of  ths 
Centennial  Anniversary  of  Lycoming  County,  24.  Lycoming  County  in  this  early  period  in- 
cluded the  whole  of  north  central  Pennsylvania. 

•1  Sanford,   L.   G.,  History  of  Erie   County,   97. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  67 

were  preponderantly  Scotch-Irish  and  intensely  democratic  from 
the  beginning.  Although  beyond  the  mountains,  they  had,  as  part 
of  Pennsylvania,  escaped  the  probationary  period  which  accorded 
so  well  with  the  Federalist  idea  of  government  for  the  western 
settlements.*^-  In  lieu  of  this,  Hamilton  sought  to  imbue  them  with" 
a  proper  regard  for  the  power  and  authority  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment by  means  of  the  excise  law.^^  The  Whiskey  Rebellion  followed, 
and  in  the  trial  of  its  leaders  a  prominent  part  was  taken  by  Judge 
Alexander  Addison,  the  "first  law  judge  in  Western  Pennsylvania," 
and  one  of  the  few  prominent  Federalists  of  that  region.®*  The 
suppression  of  the  insurrection  undoubtedly  inspired  respect  for 
the  government,  as  Hamilton  planned  it  should,  but  it  was  little 
calculated  to  win  western  votes  for  his  party.  As  early  as  1798, 
therefore,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  Federalist  party  in  West- 
moreland County,  although  James  Ross  believed  that  a  permanent, 
sensible  leader  might  have  won  a  small  following.  A  small  group 
of  that  party  had  maintained  itself  in  Fayette  County,  but  was 
powerless  in  congressional  elections  for  lack  of  support  from 
Westmoreland.*'^  Four  years  later  the  enmity  against  Judge  Addi- 
son brought  about  his  impeachment  and  removal.  While  his  pri- 
mary offence  was  doubtless  his  conduct  during  the  Whiskey  Rebel- 
lion, his  Federalist  principles  rendered  him,  it  seems,  "perhaps  too 
impatient  in  his  temper,"  and  "not  sufficiently  courteous  to  his 
demagogical  colleague,"  although  there  was  no  doubt  as  to  his 
learning  or  integrity."*' 

Another  straw  which  shows  which  way  the  wind  blew  in 
western  Pennsylvania  is  the  case  of  Major  Isaac  Craig.  He  was 
one  of  the  earliest  citizens  of  Pittsburg,  a  Federalist,  and  a  man 
of  some  note  in  the  region.  He  had  served  during  the  Revolution, 
and  in  1780  had  commanded  at  Pittsburg.    From    the    time    of 


*2  Referring  to  the  two  stages  of  territorial  government  provided  for  by  the  Ordinance 
of  1787. 

■*  The  whole  history  of  the  Whiskey  Insurrection  is  an  interesting  chapter  in  the  story 
of  the  division  between  the  seaboard  and  interior.  Comments  of  the  easterners  are  typical 
of  their  attitude  towards  the  interior.  Fisher  Ames,  referring  to  the  rebel  manifesto,  said  that 
these  views  "had  tainted  a  vast  extent  of  country  beside  Pennsylvania."  (Winsor,  Westward 
Movement,  485).  Wolcott  referred  to  the  rebels  as  "the  wild  men  of  the  back  country,"  but 
predicted  that  they  would  not  have  the  perseverance  to  oppose  the  steady  pressure  of  law  and 
must  finally  submit.  (Ibid.)  Cf.  Washington's  view  that  the  rebellion  was  the  fruit  of  the 
democratic  societies. 

"*  Thwaites,  Earhj  Western  Travels,   III,   363,  /.  n. 

«»  Ross  to  St.  Clair,  July  5,  1798.  St.  Clair  Papers,  II,  422-423.  St.  Clair  was  inquiring 
into  the  probability  of  success  as  a  candidate  for  Congress. 

•*  Crair,  N.  B.,  History  of  Pittsburgh,  286-287. 


68  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

Wayne's  Indian  campaigns  he  was  in  charge  of  the  military  stores 
at  Pittsburg  until  deprived  of  the  office  by  Jefferson,  in  1802, 
because  of  his  political  views.®^  Thus  through  adverse  public  opin- 
ion and  administration  influence  Federalists  lost  their  hold  on  offi- 
cial positions  in  the  West.  Yet,  as  in  Ohio,  some  clung  tenaciously 
to  the  Federalist  name  in  the  face  of  defeat,  and  party  feeling  ran 
high  at  times.  Cuming,  while  on  his  tour  through  the  region  in 
1807,  was  amazed  at  the  bitterness  shown.  "They  nickname  each 
other  AiHstocrats  and  Democrats,  and  it  is  astonishing  to  what  a 

height  their  mutual  animosity  is  carried The  most  illiberal 

opinions  are  adopted  by  each  party,  and  it  is  sufficient  with  a 
federalist  that  another  man  is  a  republican,  to  pronounce  him  ca- 
pable of  every  crime,  while  the  republican  takes  care  not  to  allow  the 
federalist  the  smallest  of  the  attributes  of  virtue."  ^^  He  adds  that 
their  opinions  "are  argued  with  more  warmth  and  are  productive  of 
more  rancour  and  violence  in  Pittsburg  than  in  any  other  part  of 
America."  ^* 

The  change  in  the  political  complexion  of  western  New  York 
swung  the  twelve  electoral  votes  of  the  state  to  Jefferson  in  1800 
and  was  a  decisive  factor  in  the  election.^°  Yet  narrow  as  was  the 
victory,  an  acute  analyst  of  political  forces  and  tendencies  might 
even  then  have  read  finis  for  Federalism  in  the  light  of  its  first 
defeat.  Many  southern  members  of  the  party,  assured  of  satisfac- 
tory political  adjustments  at  home,  were  sufficiently  content  with 
Jefferson's  policies  in  national  affairs  to  become  apathetic,  lacking 
an  issue  worth  fighting  for.^^  From  this  period  Federalism  re- 
tained vitality  nowhere  except  in  New  England,  where  it  had  al- 
ways found  its  chief  support.^^  Even  there  Jefferson's  measures 
met  with  popular  approval,  as  was  shown  by  the  result  of  the 


"''  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  IV,  96,  /.  n. 

**  Cuming,  F.,  Tour  to  the  Western  Country,  in  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  TV, 
70-72. 

•*  Ibid.,  85.  The  editor  of  the  first  edition  of  the  Tour,  a  Pittsburg  printer,  inserts  at 
this  point  a  note  explaining  that  Cuming  visited  Pittsburg  at  a  time  when  party  feeling  was 
unusually  high,  but  that  "at  the  present  [1810]  rancour  has  subsided." 

'"^  If  Hamilton's  proposal  to  choose  electors  by  districts  (Lodge,  H.  C.,  Works  of  Hamilton, 
VIII,  549  et  seq.)  had  been  adopted  and  had  saved  five  New  York  electors  for  Adams,  he  would 
have  defeated  Jefferson  by  a  vote  of  70  to  68. 

■'I  Phillips,  "The  South  Carolina  Federalists,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Rev.,  XIV,  629-548  ;  731-743, 
traces  the  causes  of  the  collapse  of  the  state  organization  which  followed  the  election  of  Jef- 
ferson. The  article  is  suggestive  of  the  fate  of  the  party  elsewhere  in  the  South.  Cf.  Beard, 
Economic  Origins,  Chap.  13. 

""  "In  New  England,  Federalism  had  always  found  its  chief  support ;  and  there  alone, 
after  the  downfall  of  the  party   in   1800,  did  it  retain  any  real  vitality."    Lodge,   Cabot,   419. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  69 

election  of  1804,  in  which  he  carried  every  state  in  that  section 
except  Connecticut."  '^Federalists  might,  indeed,  have  indulged 
hope  of  recovering  lost  ground  in  the  Atlantic  states,  but  it  was 
plain  that  the  growth  of  the  West  accrued  to  the  benefit  of  the  rival 
party,  and  it  was  also  plain  that  the  West  would  continue  to  grow/) 
During  the  nineties  Kentucky  had  sent  two  members  to  Congress ; 
under  the  apportionment  based  on  the  census  of  1800  she  sent 
six  and  enjoyed  a  doubled  allotment  of  presidential  electors.  The 
admission  of  Ohio  added  three  more  Republican  electors,  destined  to 
swell  to  eight  under  the  next  apportionment.  That  the  fate  of  the 
party  was  involved  in  this  western  growth  was  perceived  by  some 
of  its  chief  men.^*  "In  thirty  years,"  wailed  Timothy  Pickering  in 
1804,  "the  white  population  on  the  Western  waters  will  equal  that 
of  the  thirteen  States  when  they  declared  themselves  independent 
of  Great  Britain."  ^^  As  if  the  menace  involved  in  the  settlement 
of  the  original  western  territory  of  the  Union  were  not  enough,  the* 
acquisition  of  Louisiana  added  a  vast  new  world  certain  to  hold 
Republican  views  and  in  time  to  swell  the  number  of  Republican 
states.  The  obligation  to  grant  statehood  sooner  or  later  to  the 
communities  which  arose  within  the  original  territory  had  ham-  ''^ 
pered  the  Federalists  hitherto  and  forced  them  to  be  content  with 
dilatory  tactics.  No  such  pledges  impeded  the  expression  of  their 
views  concerning  the  future  of  Louisiana.  Although  professing 
skepticism  as  to  the  value  of  the  province  and  objecting  to  the  pur- 
chase on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  expedient,  it  was  the  belief 
that  the  treaty  involved  the  obligation  to  confer  statehood  that 
filled  them  with  alarm  and  caused  their  chief  opposition  to  its  rati-  ly 
fication.^^    They  did  not  Meny  the  constitutionality  of  territorial 


'"  The  Massachusetts  legislature  abandoned  the  choice  of  electors  by  districts  in  1804 
and  substituted  a  general  ticket,  confident  that  the  state  would  return  a  Federalist  majority. 
Bradford,  Hist,  of  Mass.,  Ill,  87. 

^«  Cf.  63-65,  above. 

■">  Letter  to  Rufus  King,  March  4.  Adams,  Henry,  New  England  Federalism,  352.  Cf. 
actual  situation  as  described  below,  83-84. 

78  "Our  party  though  with  numerous  exceptions,  opposed  it ;  for  one  reason,  that  it  cost 
money  the  greater  part  of  which  we  to  the  northward  must  pay,  and  it  gains  territory  which 
will,  in  their  apprehension,  by  giving  strength  to  the  Southern  representation,  diminish  the 
Eastern  influence  in  our  councils." — Gouverneur  Morris  to  R.  L.  Livingston,  Nov.  28,  1803: 
Morris,  A.  C,  The  Diary  and  Letters  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  II,  444.  Cf.  speech  of  Tracy  of 
Connecticut  in  Senate  in  which  he  declared  that  the  relative  strength  which  "admission  gives 
to  a  Southern  and  Western  interest  is  contradictory  to  the  principles  of  our  original  union." 
Annals,  Eighth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  56.  Rufus  King  and  John  Quincy  Adams  "agreed,  and  lamented 
that   one    inevitable   consequence    of    the    annexation    of    Louisiana    to    the    Union    would   be    to 


70  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

acquisitions,  but  combated  the  right  of  Congress  to  admit  acquired 
territories  to  statehood;  insisting  that  they  must  be  held  as  de- 
pendent provinces." 

Thus  through  the  growth  of  the  West  the  ruin  of  the  Atlantic 
interest,  predicted  by  Morris  in  1787,  seemed  drawing  near;  the 


diminish  the  relative  weight  and  influence  of  the  northern  section."  Adams,  New  England 
Federalism,  148. 

"They  did  not  fear  the  measure  of  acquiring  Louisiana  per  se,  but  the  supremacy  of 
Democracy,  which  was  its  meaning  to  them.  They  saw  in  it  the  assurance  of  a  perpetuation 
of  Jefferson's  power  and  of  his  maxims." — Lodge,  Cabot,  435-436. 

'"'See,  e.  g.,  speech  of  Timothy  Pickering:  "He  had  never  doubted  the  right  of  the 
United  States  to  acquire  new  territory,  either  by  purchase  or  by  conquest,  and  to  govern  the 
territory  so  acquired  as  a  dependent  province."  But  he  denied  that  such  territory  could  be 
given  statehood  by  treaty,  or  Congress,  or  even  an  amendment,  unless  assented  to  by  every 
state.  Annals,  Eighth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  45.  Griswold  of  Connecticut  maintained  likewise  that 
acquired  territory  could  not  be  incorporated  either  by  conquest  or  purchase,  but  "must  re- 
main in  the  condition  of  colonies  and  be  governed  accordingly."  Ibid.  Cf.  view  of  G.  Morris, 
in  letter  to  H.  W.  Livingston :  "I  always  thought  that,  when  we  should  acquire  Canada  and 
Louisiana  it  would  be  proper  to  govern  them  as  provinces,  and  allow  them  no  voice  in  our 
councils."    Sparks,  J.,  Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  III,  192. 

Morris  was  ready  to  acquiesce  in  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  "I  like  well  your  treaty 
with  France,"  he  wrote  to  Livingston.  Morris,  Morris,  II,  444.  He  had,  indeed,  felt  grave 
apprehensions  lest  Jefferson's  laxity  should  permit  France  to  take  possession  of  it.  "Si  notre 
administration  permet  aux  Frangais  de  s'y  nicher,  on  n'en  sera  quitte  que  par  des  guerres  et 
des  convulsions  affreuses.  Nous  avons  actuellement  le  malheur  d'etre  gouverne  par  I'esprit  de 
vertige  que,  dans  le  siecle  ridicule  ou  nous  sommes,  on  est  convenu  de  nommer  philosophe,"  he 
wrote  to  M.  Necker  shortly  before  the  purchase.  Ibid.,  433-434.  He  therefore  regarded  Liv- 
ingston's treaty  as  having  "saved"  Jefferson's  administration,  and  thought  this  was  one  rea- 
son for  the  Federalist's  dislike  of  it.  Ibid.,  444.  He  anticipated  some  benefits  even  for  New 
England.  "From  the  moment  when  the  citizens  of  Louisiana  were  made  members  of  our 
Union,  they  became  the  natural  and  political  allies  of  the  Noilhern  and  Eastern  States.  We 
have  with  them  no  competition  of  interest ;  on  the  contrary,  our  shipping  and  mercantile  capi- 
tal are  essential  to  their  wealth  and  prosperity,  and  equally  indifferent  is  it  to  us  whether 
the  produce  of  our  skill  and  industry  be  vended  to  those  who  speak  English  or  to  those  who 
gabble  the  provincial  dialects  of  France  and  Spain."  Ibid.,  454.  Morris  thus  stands  in  con- 
trast with  the  more  extreme  Federalists  like  Pickering,  in  foreseeing  the  possibility  of  ad- 
vantageous economic  relations  with  this  new  West,  but  he  must  have  used  the  word  "political" 
in  the  above  passage  in  a  very  loose  sense,  as  he  could  hardly  have  anticipated  a  party  alli- 
ance between  New  England  and  Louisiana.  One  is  tempted  to  conclude,  upon  the  whole,  that 
Morris  was  trying  to  make  the  best  of  a  situation  which  he  thought  rather  bad,  for  on  January 
7,  1804,  in  a  letter  to  Jonathan  Dayton,  while  still  expressing  his  approval  of  the  cession,  he 
pointed  out  objectionable  features  of  the  treaty.  Especially,  he  says,  "the  stipulation  to  admit 
the  inhabitants  into  our  Union  will,  I  believe,  prove  injurious  to  this  country."  Ibid.,  453. 
Only  three  days  before  writing  to  Livingston  approving  the  treaty,  he  betrayed  the  temper  of 
the  anti-expansionist  in  a  letter  to  another  correspondent:  "I  am  very  certain  that  I  had  it 
not  in  contemplation  to  insert  a  decree  de  crescendo  imperio  in  the  Constitution  of  America, 
without  examining  whether  a  limitation  of  territory  be  or  be  not  essential  to  the  preservation 
of  republican  government.  I  am  certain  that  the  counti-y  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Atlantic  exceeds  by  far  the  limits  which  prudence  would  assign  if,  in  effect,   any  limitation  be 

required I  knew  as  well  then  as  I  do  now  that  all   North  America  must  at  length  be 

annexed  to  us — happy,  indeed,  if  the  lust  of  dominion  stop  there.  It  would  therefore  have  been 
perfectly  Utopian  to  oppose  a  paper  restriction  to  the  violence  of  popular  sentiment  in  a  popu- 
lar government."    Ibid.,  442. 

Cf.  views  of  King  and  Adams:  "The  alternative  to  acquisition  of  Louisiana  was, — 
Louisiana  and  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  possession  of  France,  under  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte. The  loss  of  sectional  influence,  we  hoped  and  believed,  would  be  more  than  compen- 
sated by  the  extension  of  national  power  and  security."    Adams,  New  England  Federaliam,  148. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  71 

friends  of  commerce,  of  conservative  government  and  good  order  ^ 
seemed  destined  to  permanent  subjection  by  the  party  of  "incon- 
gruous materials,  all  tending  to  mischief."  ^®  Under  these  circum- 
stances some  of  the  ultra  Federalists  began  to  feel  that  the  Union 
had  failed  to  secure  their  dearest  interests,  and  to  consider  the 
feasibility  of  a  northern  confederation.^^*  "The  people  of  the  East," 
wrote  Pickering  to  George  Cabot,  "cannot  reconcile  their  habits, 
views,  and  interests  with  those  of  the  South  and  West.   The  latter 

are  beginning  to  rule  with  a  rod  of  iron I  do  not  believe  in 

the  practicability  of  a  long-continued  union.    A  northern  confed- 
eracy would  unite  congenial  characters."  *° 

But  the  desperate  situation  of  the  Federalists  was  not  to  be  re- 
lieved by  secession.  Separation  might  free  them  from  the  iron  rod 
of  western  and  southern  democracy,  but  could  not  protect  them 
from  the  rising  democracy  within  New  England  itself.  Only  such 
a  reactionary  policy  as  was  impracticable  could  afford  a  remedy. 
If  Federalism  could  have  turned  back  to  the  aristocratic  regime 
of  colonial  days — "if,"  as  Cabot  expressed  it,  "no  man  in  New  Eng- 
land could  vote  for  legislators  who  was  not  possessed  in  his  own 
right  of  two  thousand  dollars'  value  in  land,"  then,  as  he  added,  it 
might  be  possible  to  "do  something  better."  ^^  But  Federalism 
could  not  save  itself  either  by  secession  or  by  turning  back,^-  and 


■^8  Hamilton's  characterization  of  the  Republican  party,  in  letter  to  Jay,  1800.  Lodge, 
Works  of  Hamilton,  VIII,  550. 

■'*  Pickering  was  a  leader  of  the  Essex  Junto,  "composed  chiefly  of  hard-headed  mer- 
chants and  lawyers  of  Essex  County,  where  mercantile  and  maritime  interests  were  even 
stronger  than  in  Boston.  Stephen  Higginson,  George  Cabot,  and  Theophilus  Parsons  were  its 
earliest  leaders  ....  a  few  Boston  Federalists,  such  as  Fisher  Ames,  Timothy  Bigelow,  Christo- 
pher Gore,  and  John  Lowell,  Jr.,  afterwards  became  identified  with  the  group.  This  Essex 
Junto,  the  ultra-conservative  and  ultra-sectional  wing  of  the  party,  refused  all  compromise 
with  democracy  ....  failed  entirely  to  sympathise  with  the  South  and  West,  and,  in  short, 
was  blind  to  the  fact  that  the  world  had  moved  forward  since  1775  and  1789."  Morison,  Otis, 
I,  48.  Cf.  Morse,  A.  E.,  Federalist  Party  in  Massachusetts,  17,  /.  n.  See  above,  30,  note  66, 
for  connection  of  the  Essex  leaders  with  constitution  making  in  Massachusetts. 

'"  January  29,  1804.    Adams,  New  England  Federalism,  339. 

81  To  Pickering,  February  14,  1804.  Ibid.,  346-349.  Federalist  control  in  the  old  states 
was  doubtless  prolonged  by  the  emigration  which  drained  off  many  who  would  have  been  Re- 
publicans if  they  had  remained.  It  has  been  estimated  that  Massachusetts  alone  lost  180,000 
souls  between  1800  and  1810,  through  the  westward  movement.  Haight,  in  Milwaukee  Sentinel, 
Nov.  25,   1900. 

*-  "I    greatly   fear    that    a   separation    would   be    no    remedy,    because    the    source    [of    the 

evils]    is   in   the   political   theories   of   our   country   and   in   ourselves We   are    democratic 

altogether ;  and  I  hold  democracy,  in  its  natural  operation,  to  be  the  govern7nent  of  the  worst." 
Cabot  to  Pickering,  Feb.  14,  1804:  Adams,  New  England  Federalism,  346-349.  Cf.  the  advice 
of  Hamilton:  "Dismemberment  of  our  empire  will  be  a  clear  sacrifice  of  great  positive  advan- 
tages, without  any  counterbalancing  good ;  administering  no  relief  to  our  real  disease,  which 
is  Democracy;  the  poison  of  which  by  a  subdivision  will  only  be  the  more  concentrated  in 
each  part,   and  consequently   the   more   virulent."    Ibid.,   365.    John    Quincy   Adams   and   Rufue 


72  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

nothing  but  the  unpopular  foreign  policy  pursued  by  the  Republi- 
cans themselves,  after  1807,  prevented  the  speedy  dissolution  which 
the  election  of  1804  portended.  The  popular  approval  which  Jef- 
ferson had  won  in  New  England  and  New  York  by  the  moderate 
measures  of  his  first  term,  he  lost  again  through  the  embargo. 
The  system  of  commercial  restriction  and  the  war  which  followed 
fell  with  crushing  weight  upon  the  maritime  class  and  all  of  its 
dependents,  driving  many  of  the  newly-made  Republicans  back  to 
the  Federalist  party  as  the  means  of  voicing  their  protest,  and 
galvanizing  the  dying  party  into  the  semblance  of  returnihg  life 
where  there  was  no  enduring  source  of  vitality.  The  elections  of 
1807  had  for  the  first  time  placed  the  Republicans  in  control  of 
both  houses  and  the  executive  in  Massachusetts,  much  to  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  Washington  government;  but  the  prompt  reaction 
due  to  the  embargo  restored  Federalist  power  in  the  legislature 
the  next  year.^^  In  New  York  also  the  Federalists  made  consid- 
erable gains,  but  not  enough  to  shake  the  dominance  of  the  Re- 
publicans.^* Even  in  Virginia,  where  also  Federalism  had  shown 
a  marked  decline  since  1800,  the  party  received  an  accession  of 
strength  because  of  the  effect  of  the  restrictions  on  commerce.  Not 
only  did  the  tidewater  counties  poll  heavy  anti-administration  votes, 
but  portions  of  the  piedmont  and  Shenandoah  Valley,  deprived  of 
their  market  for  wheat,  recurred  to  Federalism.^^  Monroe's  friends, 
the  Quids,  sought  aid  of  the  Federalists  in  their  efforts  to  defeat 
Madison  as  the  successor  to  Jefferson's  place  and  policies,  and 
joined  forces  with  them  in  advocating  the  recharter  of  the  First 
United  States  Bank  and  in  opposing  the  war  and  measures  of  prep- 


King  "considered  a  severance  of  the  Union  as  a  remedy  more  desperate  than  any  possible  dis- 
ease."   Ibid.,  148. 

Those  who  shared  Pickering's  views  were  Griswold  and  Tracy,  of  Connecticut,  and 
Plumer  of  New  Hampshire.  Other  Federalists  in  Congress,  for  example,  Hillhouse  of  Connecti- 
cut, sympathized  to  a  degree.  Pickering  sounded  King,  Ames,  Cabot,  and  Parsons,  also,  but 
received  no  encouragement  from  the  Massachusetts  Federalists,  even  of  the  Essex  Junto.  Lodge, 
Cabot,  438-439.     For  Plumer's  views  see   Adams,   Neiv  England   Federalism,   144-145. 

83  Bradford,  Hist,  of  Mass.,  Ill,  99,  100:  "The  embargo  law  was  so  injurious  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  State  ....  that  the  people  withdrew  their  confidence  and  support  from  can- 
didates for  public  offices,  who  were  friends  to  the  embargo,  and  to  the  general  policy  and 
measures  of  the  national  government."  It  was  at  this  time  that  John  Quincy  Adams  resigned 
his  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  was  read  out  of  the  Federalist  party,  on  account  of 
his  support  of  the  embargo. 

®*  Hammond,  Political  Parties,  I,  265. 

86  Ambler,  Sectionalism,  87,  90.  The  Valley  had  been  one  of  the  few  Federalist  areas  in 
the  West  in  1788.     See  also  Ambler,  Ritchie,  47,   48,  56,   et  passim. 

The  gains  of  the  Federalists  were  not  limited  to  the  regions  mentioned  in  the  text.  Mary- 
land was  recovered  in  1812,  etc.,  etc. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  73 

aration  for  it.^''  The  Quids  disappeared  as  a  distinct  opposition 
group  after  the  restoration  of  harmony  between  their  leader  and 
Madison,  but  the  re-election  of  Virginia  Federalists  to  Congress 
during  the  war  period  suggests  that  many  of  them  were  less  easily 
reconciled  than  Monroe. ^^  The  leader  of  the  Virginia  Federalists 
during  these  years  was  Daniel  Sheffey,  of  Augusta  County;  and 
through  their  representatives  both  in  Congress  and  in  the  State 
Assembly,  the  interior  counties  of  Virginia  showed  an  "opposi- 
tion to  the  War  of  1812  excelled  only  by  that  of  the  New  England 
Federalists."  ®^ 

These  facts  signify  merely  a  temporary  revival  of  Federalism 
in  some  of  the  old  centers.  ■  Strong  undercurrents  had  already 
undermined  its  foundations.  With  the  adjustment  of  foreign  rela- 
tions interest  would  recur  to  questions  of  domestic  development 
and  westward  expansion,  and  the  final  collapse  would  come.  In- 
deed, even  while  the  issues  arising  from  our  foreign  difficulties 
were  uppermost,  the  antipathy  of  Federalism  for  the  West  was 
strikingly  manifested.  One  occasion  was  afforded  by  the  bill  for 
the  admission  of  the  state  of  Louisiana,  the  first  to  be  formed  with- 
in the  territory  purchased  from  France — the  first  fruit  of  that 
policy  which  the  Federalists  had  anticipated  with  so  much  dread 
in  1803.  The  speech  of  Josiah  Quincy,  of  Massachusetts,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  opposition  to  this  bill,  has  long  been 
famous  for  its  open  threat  of  secession  in  the  event  of  the  bill's 
passage.  The  ground  of  objection,  however,  rather  than  the  threat, 
deserves  our  attention.  "The  debates  of  that  [convention]  period," 
said  he,  "will  show  that  the  effect  of  the  slave  votes,  upon  the  po- 
litical influence  of  this  part  of  the  country,  and  the  anticipated 
variation  of  the  weight  of  power  to  the  West,  were  subjects  of 
great  jealousy  to  some  of  the  best  patriots  in  the  Northern  and 
Eastern  States.  Suppose,  then,  that  it  had  been  distinctly  fore- 
seen, that,  in  addition  to  the  effect  of  this  weight,  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  a  world  beyond  the  Mississippi  was  to  be  brought  into  this 
and  the  other  branch  of  the  Legislature,  to  form  our  laws,  control 
our  rights,  and  decide  our  destiny.  Sir,  can  it  be  pretended  that 
the  patriots  of  that  day  would  for  one  moment  have  listened  to  it? 
They  were  not  madmen It  is  impossible  such  a  power  could 


88  Ambler,  Sectionalism,  88,  91,  92. 
»^  Ibid..  93. 
«•  Ibid.,  92. 


74  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

be  granted.  It  was  not  for  these  men  that  our  fathers  fought.  You 
have  no  authority  to  throw  the  rights  and  liberties,  and  property 
of  this  people,  into  a  'hotch  pot'  with  the  wild  men  on  the  Missouri, 
nor  with  the  mixed,  though  more  respectable  race  of  Anglo-His- 
pano-Gallo  Americans,  who  bask  on  the  sands,  in  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi."  ^^  Wheaton,  of  the  same  state,  echoed  in  striking 
language  the  arguments  of  1803  against  the  constitutionality  of  ad- 
mitting new  states  created  from  acquired  territory.  "Who  can  tell 
where  will  be  our  ultimate  bounds,  or  what  number  of  States  we 
may  have  in  the  Union?  ....  Then  what  will  become  of  the  Old 
United  States,  who  first  entered  into  the  compact  contained  in  the 
Constitution,  and  for  whose  benefit  alone  that  instrument  was 
made  and  executed.  Instead  of  these  new  states  being  annexed  to 
us,  we  shall  be  annexed  to  them,  lose  our  independence,  and  be- 
come altogether  subject  to  their  control."  ^°  While  New  England 
voiced  the  opposition  most  vigorously  she  was  not  left  without 
support  from  other  sections.  In  fact,  Sheffey  spoke  before  either 
Quincy  or  Wheaton,  but  in  moderate  terms,  counselling  delay.  "He 
was  not,  he  said,  directly  hostile  to  the  admission  of  this  Territory 
into  the  Union."  But  he  asked  "Would  gentlemen  favor  this  French 
population  at  the  expense  of  their  own  interests  and  rights  [by 
premature  admission]  ?  .  .  .  .  Under  the  fostering  hand  of  the  Gen- 
eral Government,  let  them  become  accustomed  to  our  Government, 
before  those  were  permitted  to  govern  themselves  who  had  so 
lately  emerged  from  despotism."  "  This  was  a  mild  course,  but 
the  Republicans  would  have  none  of  it.  As  in  previous  debates 
over  the  admission  of  states,  they  regarded  territorial  government 
as  odious  because  not  free,  and  desired  the  briefest  possible  ap- 
prenticeship.°- 

The  extravagant  language  of  Quincy  was  not  inaptly  referred 
to  by  Poindexter  as  "the  ebullitions  of  political  drunkenness,"  for 
in  their  frenzy  the  New  Englanders  were  blind  to  the  simple  fact 


*'  Annals  of  Cong.,  Eleventh  Cong.,  3  sess.,  537. 

">  Ibid.,   493-495. 

»i  Ibid...  484-485. 

•-  "He  would  treat  these  people  as  he  would  the  people  of  every  other  Territory.  They 
were  a  part  of  the  nation,  and  so  ought  to  be  considered.    There  ought  to  be  no  question  as  to 

what   stock   they    sprung   from They    had   already   served    a   sufficient    apprenticeship    to 

the   United   States,   but   not   under   a    free   Government,    for   the    Territorial   governments    were 

not  free Wished  to   treat  this  Territory   as   well   as  the   others   and  no   better ;   he   would 

not  treat  one  as  a  daughter  and  the  other  as  a  step-daughter.  He  was  as  willing  now  to 
make  Orleans  a  State  as  he  had  been  to  make  Ohio  a  State."  Speech  of  Nathaniel  Macon. 
Ibid..  484-486. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  75 

that  much  of  the  West  would  be  peopled  by  emigrants  from  their 
own  section.  This  the  speaker  just  quoted  tried  to  bring  to  their 
attention.  "The  people  of  the  Eastern  States  will  never  give  their 
assent  to  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  They  are  bound  to  the  West- 
ern country  by  inseparable  ties  of  nature  and  of  interest.  The 
hardy  and  adventurous  sons  of  New  England  will,  in  a  short  time, 
compose  a  large  proportion  of  the  population  on  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  I  undertake  to  assure  the  gentleman  from  Massa- 
chusetts, that  they  will  never  return  to  'break  into  his 
house  ....'"  ^^  But  the  Federalists  would  not  be  reassured,  and 
of  the  36  nays  in  the  final  vote  26  at  least  may  be  traced  to  them. 

Following  this  defeat  on  the  floor  Quincy  declined  re-election 
to  Congress,  but  entered  the  Massachusetts  senate  where  he  con- 
tinued the  agitation  against  expansion.  In  1813  he  drew  up  a  re- 
port accompanied  by  a  series  of  resolutions,  denouncing  as  uncon- 
stitutional the  admission  of  states  created  in  territories  not  within 
the  original  limits  of  the  Union,  and  especially  the  admission  of 
Louisiana,  and  instructing  the  senators  and  requesting  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  state  to  use  their  utmost  endeavors  to  obtain  a 
repeal  of  the  act  admitting  her.»*  Thenceforth  in  the  statements 
of  the  grievances  of  New  England  against  the  general  government, 
commercial  restrictions  and  the  western  policy  are  frequently 
united.  Thus,  in  the  resolutions  which  the  Massachusetts  legisla- 
ture passed  early  in  1814,  on  account  of  the  embargo  act  of  the 
preceding  December,  occurs  a  recital  of  the  woes  of  New  England. 
Referring  to  the  memorials  sent  up  by  the  towns  throughout  the 
state,  the  report  which  precedes  the  resolutions  says:  "The  people, 
in  their  numerous  memorials  from  all  quarters  of  the  common- 


*^  Ibid.,  569.  The  Massachusetts  "blue  bloods"  were  unable  to  persuade  themselves  that 
their  own  western  emigrants  were  people  of  worth.  When  the  traveller  Faux  visited  the 
Federalist  merchant  Lyman,  in  Boston,  in  1818,  he  records  not  only  that  "my  host  seems  to 
regret  that  his  freehold  and  other  large  estates  give  to  him  no  more  power  than  that  of  the 
humblest  citizen,"  but  that  when  the  conversation  turned  to  the  plans  of  Birkbeck  for  an 
English  settlement  in  Illinois,  Lyman  exclaimed:  "If  Mr.  Birkbeck  and  others  must  emigrate 
why  should  they  go  into  our  wilderness,  far  from  society,  or  at  best  mixing  up  with  the 
refuse  of  our  population,  with  men  of  stained  names,  thieves,  and  insolvents,  who  go  thither 
to  hide  themselves ;  voluntary  exiles,  of  whom  society  is  well  rid,  because  unable  to  endure 
them."  Faux,  W.,  Memorable  Days  in  America,  in  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  XI,  57. 
Cf.  View  of  Timothy  Dwight,   in  his  Travels,  published  a  few  years  later — II,  458-463. 

"The  people  in  the  Atlantic  states  have  not  yet  recovered  from  the  horror,  inspired  by 
the  term  'backwoodsman.'  This  prejudice  is  particularly  strong  in  New  England,  and  is  more 
or  less  felt  from  Maine  to  Georgia." — Flint,  Timothy,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years,  174. 
(Published  in   1826). 

**  Niles  Register,  IV,  285-287.  Reprinted  in  Ames,  H.  V.,  State  Documenta  on  Ftderal 
Relations,  II,  25-31. 


76  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

wealth,  appear  to  despair  of  obtaining  redress  from  that  govern- 
ment, which  was  established  'TO  PROMOTE  THE  GENERAL 
WELFARE.'  They  see  that  the  voice  of  the  New  England  States, 
whose  interests  are  common,  is  lost  in  the  national  Councils,  and 
that  the  spirit  of  accommodation  and  regard  for  mutual  safety  and 
advantage,  which  produced  the  constitution  and  governed  its  early 
administration,  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  bitterness  of  party,  and 
to  the  aggrandizement  of  one  section  of  the  union,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  another  .  .  .  ."  The  fundamental  cause  of  these  evils  is 
found  in  the  growth  of  the  West.  "They  have  seen  a  power  grow 
up  in  the  southern  and  western  sections  of  the  Union,  by  the  ad- 
mission and  multiplication  of  states,  not  contemplated  by  the  par- 
ties to  the  constitution,  and  not  warranted  by  its  principles ;  and 
they  foresee  an  almost  indefinite  progression  in  this  system  of 
creation,  which  threatens  eventually  to  reduce  the  voice  of  New 
England,  once  powerful  and  effectual  in  the  national  councils,  to 
the  feeble  expression  of  colonial  complaints,  unattended  to  and 
disregarded."  ^'  The  Hartford  Convention,  which  brought  this 
chapter  of  dissent  and  protest  to  its  close,  did  not  fail  to  include 
among  its  proposed  amendments  to  the  constitution  one  which  was 
designed  to  afford  at  least  a  partial  remedy  for  this  grievance,  in 

"  the  provision  that  "No  new  State  shall  be  admitted  into  the  union 
by  Congress  in  virtue  of  the  power  granted  by  the  Constitution, 
without  the  concurrence  of  two-thirds  of  both  Houses."  That  the 
moderate  party  controlled  the  Convention  may  be  inferred  from 
the  mildness  of  this  proposal  in  comparison  with  the  demands  of 
the  radicals  who  framed  the  previous  utterances. 

Thus  in  all  of  the  clamor  of  disaffected  New  England  during 

*  the  period  of  war  there  sounds  this  note  of  dislike  and  dread  of 
the  growing  West.  The  quieter  tones  were  in  accord.  From  1812 
to  1815  Pickering  busied  himself,  as  in  1804,  in  correspondence 
with  Federalist  leaders  as  far  south  as  Virginia,  and  seems  to 
have  been  in  touch  with  kindred  spirits.^"  Once  more  he  suggested 

*5  Niles  Register,  VI,  4-8.    Reprinted  in  Ames,  State  Docs.,  II,  25-31. 

»«  Adams,  New  England  Federalism,  405.  A.  C.  Hanson  wrote  to  Pickering  from  Balti- 
more: "I  am  rejoiced  to  see  Quincy  making  such  a  noble  stand  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives  He  ought  to  be  supported,  and  no  doubt  will  .  .  .  ."  Considering  the  adminis- 
tration's foreign  policy  "and  the  creation  of  so  many  new  States, — I  shall  become  heartily 
sick  of  the  Union.  For  my  part,  I  say  without  reserve  that  the  Union  was  long  ago  dis- 
solved; and  I  never  thought  it  criminal  to  compass  a  dismemberment  of  the  States,  although 
we  have  been  educated  in  that  belief.  But  I  should  prefer  producing  such  an  event  by  quiet 
means.  I  should  like  conventions  to  be  called  in  the  several  States  so  disposed,  and  to  pro- 
ceed with  calmness  and  dignified  firmness I  think,  if  the  question   was  barely  »tirr«d 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  77 

secession  as  a  remedy,  although  in  guarded  language.  "To  my 
ears  there  is  no  magic  in  the  sound  of  Union.  If  the  great  objects 
of  union  are  utterly  abandoned, — much  more,  if  they  are  wantonly, 
corruptly,  and  treacherously  sacrificed  by  the  Southern  and  West- 
ern States, — let  the  Union  be  severed.  Such  a  severance  presents 
no  terrors  to  me."  "  The  desirability  of  secession,  in  the  thought 
of  Pickering,  lay,  however,  not  so  much  in  the  fact  that  it  would 
rid  the  East  of  southern  control,  as  that  it  would  free  it  from  the 
pernicious  connection  with  the  West.  It  was  the  democratic  West 
which  he  abhorred;  for  the  aristocratic  Republicanism  of  the  old 
South  he  recognized  the  affinity  of  Federalism.  He  inclined  to  the 
belief  that  the  southern  States,  if  separated  from  the  North,  would 
seek  a  reunion,  and  that  "the  only  permanent  severance"  would 
"  be  of  the  Western  from  the  Atlantic  States."  '^  This  he  thought 
"would  be  a  real  blessing  to  the  'good  old  thirteen  states,'  as  John 
Randolph  once  called  them."  ^»  The  British  attack  on  New  Orleans 
aroused  the  hope  that  such  a  separation  might  be  the  fortunate 
result  of  the  war.  In  January,  1815,  he  wrote:  "By  taking  and 
holding  New  Orleans,  and  consequently  commanding  the  whole 

Western  country,  she  will  break  the  Union The  Atlantic 

States  remaining  united  will  in  due  time  acquire  a  force  sufficient 
to  guard  them  from  insult  and  injury,  but  short  of  that  which 
would  tempt  ambition  to  involve  them  in  destructive  wars  with 
children  of  our  common  ancestors.  This  view  of  things  presents 
an  additional  reason  to  repress  solicitude,  where  it  exists,  among 
any  Atlantic  citizens  to  recover  New  Orleans,  should  it  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  British.  Domestic  or  internal  motives  have  ex- 
cited in  many  a  willingness,  and  in  some  a  wish,  that  the  Western 
States  might  go  off  and  leave  the  Atlantic  States  free  from  their 
mischievous  control, — a  control  every  day  becoming  more  power- 
ful and  dangerous."  "° 


in   New  England,  some  States  would   drop   off  from   the   Union  like   fruit,   rotten   ripe 

Virginia,  with  the  other  Southern  States,  and  all  Louisiana,  and  the  Floridas  in  her  rear, 
would  then  be  left  to  govern  her  black  population  as  she  lists."    Ibid.,  382. 

"  To  Edward  Pennington,  July  12,  1812.    Ibid.,  390. 

•»  Ibid. 

»o  To  George  Logan,  July  4.  1813.    Ibid..  391. 

100  To  Lowell.  Ibid.,  425-426.  Pickering  vacillated  somewhat  in  his  opinions,  but  the 
above  quotations  seem  to  represent  those  which  dominated  him  most  of  the  time.  He  saw  ad- 
vantages and  disadvantages  both  in  union  with  the  West  and  in  separation.  He  feared  separa- 
tion would  leave  the  old  states  saddled  with  the  whole  of  the  war  debt  and  deprived  of  the 
public  lands,  which  would  be  seized  by  the  states  within  which  they  lay.  Ibid.,  391.  He  did  not 
fear   the  physical  might   of  the   West,   believing  that   a  single   frigate   could   blockade  the  Mis- 


78  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

At  the  date  of  this  letter  the  war  was  over:  the  British  had 
been  repulsed  at  New  Orleans,  and  the  treaty  of  peace  was  a 
month  old.  The  control  of  the  United  States  over  the  Mississippi 
Valley  had  been  threatened  for  the  last  time,  and  the  expansion 
of  the  Republic  was  ensured.  An  unprecedented  westward  move- 
ment of  population  followed  the  return  of  peace,  and  a  half-dozen 
states  entered  the  Union  within  as  many  years.  Such  an  increment 
of  western  power  would  have  destroyed  Federalism  had  it  survived 
the  war.  But  with  the  election  of  1816  it  ceased  to  maintain  a  na- 
tional organization.  Here  and  there  in  the  old  states  groups  of 
men  clung  to  the  party  name  for  many  years.^"^  Occasionally  they 
exerted  some  influence  even  in  national  politics.  But  even  in  its 
old  strongholds  Federalism  was  making  its  last  fight  against  the 
reflux  of  the  tide  of  democracy  which  had  swept  the  West,  and  the 
adoption  by  the  northeastern  states  of  new  constitutions  or  amend- 
ments granting  manhood  suffrage  drove  it  from  its  last  entrench- 
ments and  left  its  members  no  alternative  except  to  join  forces  with 
the  new  party  movements  of  the  twenties.  The  history  of  parties 
for  a  decade  following  the  war  might  detail  the  dissolution  of  the 
fragments  of  Federalism  in  the  several  states.  Such  a  study  would 
recount  the  activities  in  New  England,  the  middle  states,  and  even 
in  the  upper  South,  which  resulted  in  mixed  delegations  to  Con- 
gress, and  discuss  the  attitude  and  influence  of  Federalists  on  the 
measures  of  Congress  during  the  period.  The  part  played  by  them 
in  states  where  the  dominant  party  was  divided  into  factions  might 
be  included  to  show  how  they  sometimes  elected  a  governor  or  con- 


sissippi  and  bring  the  inhabitants  to  terms  by  cutting  them  off  from  market.  Ibid.,  390.  He 
^  also  saw  the  possibilities  for  the  New  England  carrying  trade  in  connection  with  the  products 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Ibid.,  407.  The  fear  that  the  old  Atlantic  states  would  become  in- 
significant politically  as  new  states  were  multiplied,  clung  to  him,  however,  and  was  the 
weightiest  factor  in  determining  his  convictions.  Ibid.,  407.  At  the  least  he  hoped  the  de- 
mands of  the  Hartford  Convention  might  result  in  restricted  power  in  Congress  to  admit  new 
states.  He  saw  in  the  severance  of  the  Atlantic  coast  and  Mississippi  Valley,  which  might  re- 
sult from  the  success  of  the  British  campaign,  a  condition  which  would  force  the  Atlantic 
states  into  the  close  union  which  he  believed  desirable.  "Should  the  severance  ....  take  place," 
he  wrote  to  Hillhouse,  Dec.  16,  1814,  "from  that  moment  the  necessity  of  Union  among  the 
Atlantic  States  will  strike  every  man  who  thinks,  as  forcibly  as  during  our  Revolution ;  and 
the  feebleness  of  the  States  south  of  the  Potomac  will  urge  them  to  cling  to  those  of  the 
North,  as  the  Connecticut  vine  to  the  tree  which  supports  it.  The  terms  of  a  new  compact 
will  be  adapted  to  this  new  state  of  things."  Ibid.,  418.  Can  it  be  that  the  New  England 
extremists  desired  to  bring  about  secession  through  the  Hartford  Convention,  as  a  means  to 
reunion  with  the  South  on  better  terms,  and  with  the  West  excluded? 

J^"!  E.  g..  Federalists  cast  16,000  of  the  40,000  votes  in  the  Maryland  state  election  of 
1820.  Nilcs  Register,  XIX,  111.  In  New  Hampshire  a  Federalist  electoral  ticket  reecived  1600 
votes  in  that  year,  the  Republican  electors  polling  about  9,000.  New  Hampshire  Patriot,  Jan- 
uary, 1821. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  FEDERALISM  79 

trolled  a  legislature.  The  influence  of  the  undying  hatred  of  the 
Essex  Junto  toward  John  Adams  upon  the  fortunes  of  his  son  is 
typical  of  another  class  of  data  which  might  be  collected.  Of 
broader  interest  would  be  the  story  of  such  contests  as  that  by 
which  the  Baptist-Methodist-Episcopalian  alliance  under  the  ban- 
ner of  Republicanism  overturned  the  Congregationalist-Federalist 
regime  in  Connecticut  and  established  a  more  liberal  constitution 
in  1818.  But  to  fix  attention  upon  such  details  would  be  to  follow 
eddies  instead  of  the  main  current,  since  Federalism  as  the  na- 
tional rival  of  Republicanism  came  to  an  end  in  1816. 

Prior  to  the  election  of  1816  it  was  felt  that  the  outcome  of 
that  campaign  would  decide  the  fate  of  the  party.  "If  we  cannot 
make  any  impression  upon  the  presidential  election,  this  time,  I 
see  no  hope  for  the  future,"  wrote  T.  Dwight  to  Rufus  King  in 
February."-  For  such  an  impression  success  in  New  York  was  a 
prerequisite,  and  as  the  best  hope  of  carrying  that  state  King  was 
nominated  for  governor  and  his  acceptance  urged  by  the  most  in- 
fluential Federalists."^  The  efforts  in  New  York  had,  however, 
no  other  effect  than  to  unite  the  Republicans  who  easily  carried 
the  election.  Thereupon  King  abandoned  hope  for  the  party,  and 
wrote  to  Gore  of  Massachusetts :  "I  presume  that  the  failure  will, 
as  I  think  it  should,  discourage  the  Federalists  from  maintaining 
a  fruitless  struggle.  It  has  probably  become  the  real  interest  and 
policy  of  the  country,  that  the  Democracy  should  pursue  its  own 
natural  course.  Federalists  of  our  age  must  be  content  with  the 
past."  "*  To  his  son  Edward  he  confided  his  conviction  that  "so 
effectually  prostrate  is  Federalism,  that  I  have  no  kind  of  Expecta- 
tion that  [it]  can  be  again  in  Favor."  The  only  remaining  course, 
in  his  opinion,  was  to  support  the  "least  wicked  Section  of  the 
Republicans"  in  case  of  division  among  them."^ 

Already  some  correspondence  had  passed  among  the  leaders 
concerning  the  most  suitable  candidate  for  the  presidency.  R.  Mor- 
ris believed  "that  if  Howard  of  Maryland  were  started  against 

Monroe,  he  would  stand  a  tolerable  chance Should  James 

Ross  of  Pennsylvania  be  held  up  also  as  Vice  President,  it  would 


lo^  King,  C.   R.,  Life  and  Correspondence   of  Rufus  King,  V,   602. 

1"^  J.  R.  Van  Rensselaer  wrote,  Feb.  16:  "I  most  sincerely  believe  the  existence  of  the 
federal  party  in  this  State  depends  on  the  decision  you  shall  make."  Others  who  wrote  in 
similar  vein  were  James  Kent,  Jacob  Morris,  W.  A.  Duer,  T.  Dwight,  T.  J.  Oakley,  D.  B. 
Ogden,  S.  Rensselaer,  et  al.    Ibid.,  506. 

"*May  15,  1816.    Ibid.,  535. 

lo"  May  21.    Ibid.,  537. 


80  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

conduce  to  the  Union  of  one  Party  and  contribute  to  distract  the 
other.  Howard  has  good  Sense,  Honor,  Courage,  and  Integrity. 
Ross  is  a  man  of  the  highest  order  of  Talents."  "^  King  himself 
seemed  inclined  to  favor  Ross.^"^  In  view  of  the  discouraging  de- 
feat in  New  York,  however,  no  formal  steps  were  taken  to  unite 
upon  a  leader  or  to  rally  the  party ;  the  few  Federalist  electors  cast 
their  votes  for  King,  and  we  may  well  accept  his  words  quoted 
above  as  a  fitting  close  to  the  history  of  the  party. 

So  perished  Federalism/ Its  aristocratic  temper,  its  identifica- 
tion with  the  moneyed  and  commercial  class  of  the  seaboard,  were 
the  primary  causes  of  its  unfitness  for  expansion  into  regions  where 
society  was  of  a  primitive  agricultural  type.  But  the  West^nd  the 
Iheast  were  not, destined  to  permanent  antagonism.  Bythe  mid- 


twenties  the  older  section  had  felt  the  influence  of  the  democratic 
spirit,  the  Northwest  was  entering  a  maturer  stage  marked  by  the 
growth  of  towns  as  centers  of  trade  and  manufacturing,  and  im- 
proved facilities  for  communicatioiT  were  drawing  the  two  sections 
together — all  of  which  revealed  a  partial  harmony  of  interest  which 
found  political  expression.  How  this  came  about,  however,  is  the 
story,  not  of  the  decline  of  Federalism,  but  of  the  rise  of  a  new 
party. 


lo*  March  15.    Ibid.,  VI,  16. 
!»'  Nov.  22.    Ibid.,  35. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DISRUPTION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

1.  The  Era  of  Nationalism 

The  exit  of  the  Federalist  party  left  the  Republicans  in  tri- 
umphant possession  of  the  field,  but  the  Republican  party  of  1815 
was  far  different  from  that  of  1793  or  1798.  Once  firmly  estab- 
lished in  power,  Jefferson  and  his  friends  found  their  views  of  the 
limits  of  federal  authority  greatly  altered  by  their  new  situation. 
The  functions  of  government  might  well  be  reduced  to  the  mini- 
mum when  performed  by  "aristocrats"  but  the  raison  d'etre  for 
restrictions  disappeared  in  large  measure  with  the  advent  of  the 
party  of  the  people.  The  Republicans  took  up  the  task  of  adminis- 
tration in  1801  with  a  boldness  which  soon  made  their  change  of 
temper  evident  even  to  the  Federalists.  "By  downright  demon- 
stration," wrote  Gouverneur  Morris,  "it  is  shown  that  the  republi- 
can party  were  not  dissatisfied  because  the  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  too  great,  but  because  it  was  not  in  their  hands."  ^ 

The  party  which  had  been  so  transformed  by  possession  of 
power  was  now  to  be  disrupted  by  the  forces  of  a  new  era.  The 
usual  characterization  of  the  decade  following  the  War  of  1812 
as  an  "era  of  good  feeling"  and  personal  politics  but  thinly  veils 
the  truth  that  deep-seated  forces  were  working  a  revolution  in  the 
basis  of  parties.  In  later  periods  of  party  reorganization,  the 
cause  of  realignment  is  found  in  social  and  economic  changes.  The 
rapidity  of  the  nation's  growth  has  brought  forward  new  problems 
with  each  generation,  and  each  generation  has  accordingly  seen  a 
reshaping  of  party  lines.  The  dramatic  history  of  the  decade  pre- 
ceding the  Civil  War  is  the  most  striking  example  of  this  truth: 
despite  the  earnest  efforts  of  all  those  who  foresaw  the  disruption 
of  the  old  parties  if  not  of  the  Union,  the  slavery  question  then 
thrust  itself  irresistibly  into  politics,  destroying  the  Whig  organi- 
zation, dividing  the  Democracy,  and  giving  birth  to  the  Republican 
party.  Again,  as  the  century  drew  to  its  close,  the  readjustment  of 
national  life  to  the  scale  of  the  great  continent  which  had  been 


1  To  H.  W.  Livingston,  Nov.  25,  1803.     Morris,  Morris,  III,  443. 

81 


82  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

brought  under  the  hand  of  man  involved  notable  changes  in  na- 
tional problems  and  in  the  spirit  and  program  of  parties,  notwith- 
standing the  persistence  of  old  party  names. 

The  connection  of  the  dissolution  of  the  old  Federalist  and 
Republican  parties  and  the  birth  of  the  National  Republican  and 
Democratic  organizations  with  social  and  economic  forces  has  been 
less  studied  and  is  more  difficult  to  trace.  At  later  epochs  new 
tendencies  were  perceived  and  conscious  efforts  were  made  to 
counteract  them ;  party  discipline,  highly  developed  since  the  Jack- 
sonian  epoch,  has  ever  shown  itself  fearful  of  new  issues.  ( At  the 
earlier  epoch,  however,  not  only  were  party  methods  and  machin- 
ery less  highly  developed,  but  discipline  was  slight,  and  there  was 
less  perception  of  the  relations  between  parties  as  such  and  the 
problems  of  the  day.  The  decline  of  the  old  organizations  after 
1815  was  at  that  time  rather  welcomed  than  deplored.^  The  belief 
prevailed  widely  that  parties  were  unnecessary  and  even  undesira- 
ble agencies  in  carrying  on  government,  and  while  much  was  said 
about  sound  principles,  party  loyalty  was  lightly  esteemed  and 
sometimes  even  denounced  as  the  spirit  of  faction.^  A  belief  in  the 
permanence  of  non-party  government  is  implied,  too,  in  the  various 
proposals  of  the  early  twenties  to  amend  the  constitution  in  such 
a  way  as  to  prevent  the  quadrennial  choice  of  the  President  by  the 
House.*  But  even  while  cherishing  the  belief  that  all  might  unite 
in  support  of  the  principles  of  true  republican  government,  men 
were  dividing  into  groups  according  to  divergent  interests,  and, 
through  the  operation  of  unperceived  forces,  were  moving  directly 
towards  the  new  party  organizations  of  the  later  twenties. 

The  first  parties,  as  we  have  seen,  grew  out  of  conditions  as 
they  existed  at  the  beginning  of  the  national  period.    In  the  in- 


"  A  typical  comment  of  the  period  is  the  following  reference  to  Monroe's  tour :  "Every- 
thing   like    party    seems    entirely    forgotten — Federalists    and    Democrats    appear    emulous    who 

shall  render  him  most  honor There  is   reason   to  believe  that  Mr.   Monroe   will  be   the 

President  of  the  United  States,  and  not  the  President  of  a  party ;  if  so,  he  will  command  the 
support  and  esteem  of  the  wise  and  virtuous  of  all  parties,  and  retire  from  office  amidst  the 
benedictions  of  a  grateful  and  happy  people."  Winchester  Gazette,  quoted  by  Supporter,  July 
1,  1817. 

^  Perhaps  the  most  famous  expression  of  this  kind  is  contained  in  Jackson's  letter  to 
Monroe,  Nov.  12,  1816,  just  after  the  latter's  election,  in  which  he  said:  "Everything  depends 
on  the  selection  of  your  ministry.  In  every  selection,  party  and  party  feeling  should  be 
avoided.  Now  is  the  time  to  exterminate  that  vionster  called  party  spirit  ....  the  chief 
magistrate  of  a  great  and  powerful  nation  should  never  indulge  in  party  feelings  .  .  .  ."  Par- 
ton,  James,  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  II,  357  et  seq. 

*  Ames,  H.  V.,  Proposed  Amendments  to  the  Constitution  (in  Amer.  Hist.  Assn.  Report 
for  1896,  II),  106  et  seq. 


THE  ERA  OF  NATIONALISM  83 

terval  between  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  and  the  presidency 
of  Jackson  an  empire  arose  beyond  the  frontier  of  1790  which  ex- 
ceeded the  whole  settled  region  of  the  former  date  in  both  popula- 
tion and  area.  The  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  according  to 
the  first  census  numbered  somewhat  less  than  four  millions,  of 
which,  by  the  most  liberal  estimate,  the  entire  transmontane  region 
contained  not  more  than  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand.' 
Even  under  a  regime  of  equal  rights,  this  ratio  of  about  one  in  fif- 
teen would  have  been  the  measure  of  an  almost  negligible  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  But  the  next  generation  saw  a  great 
change  in  the  relative  weight  of  the  two  sections  separated  by  the 
Alleghanies.  By  1830  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  boasted  nearly  one 
million  four  hundred  thousand  people,  the  wilderness  of  western 
New  York  had  become  the  home  of  nearly  half  as  many,  and  trans- 
montane Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  contributed  a  like 
number  to  the  total  population  of  the  West.  Moreover,  into  the 
old  Northwest,  into  the  Gulf  Plains,  and  even  into  the  acquired 
territory  beyond  the  Mississippi,  had  poured  a  flood  of  migration 
which  had  peopled  these  vast  spaces  with  two  and  a  half  millions 
more.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the  West  of  the  Jacksonian  era 
contained  more  than  five  million  inhabitants,  exceeding  by  more 
than  one-fourth  the  population  of  the  entire  country  at  the  epoch 
of  the  first  census,  while  the  area  settled  after  1790  exceeded  that 
occupied  before  by  two-thirds.^  As  in  population  and  extent,  so  in 


*  This  estimate  is  reached  as  follows:  Kentucky,  73,677;  Tennessee,  35,691  (Thirteenth 
Census,  Population,  I,  30)  ;  to  which  must  be  added  figures  for  the  population  northwest  of 
the  Ohio  River,  and  in  the  western  counties  of  some  of  the  old  states.  The  first  census  did 
not  include  the  Northwest  Territory  in  the  area  of  enumeration,  but  Governor  St.  Clair  esti- 
mated the  inhabitants  at  4,000  (Century  of  Population  Growth,  54).  Jedediah  Morse's  esti- 
mate of  1792  was  7,820.  (Cited  ibid.)  In  New  York,  settlement  had  not  yet  passed  the  lake 
region,  the  whole  western  end  of  the  state  being  embraced  in  Ontario  County  with  about 
1,000  inhabitants.  (Twelfth  Census,  Population,  I,  32.  County  maps  of  the  states  for  1790 
are  given  in  Century  of  Population  Growth,  61-70.)  The  transalleghany  portions  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland,  and  Virginia  contributed  about  160,000  to  the  total — Virginia  counties  now 
composing  West  Virginia,  55,873 ;  Allegheny,  Washington,  Fayette,  Westmoreland,  Bedford, 
and  Huntington  Counties,  Pa.,  as  bounded  in  1790,  84,211  ;  Allegany  and  Washington  Coun- 
ties, Maryland,  20,631.  As  some  of  the  population  of  counties  included  was  intramontane 
rather  than  transmontane,  the  estimate  of  the  text  is  generous,  even  without  making  allow- 
ance for  Northumberland  County,  Pa.,  which  lay  beyond  the  mountains  in  part,  but*  for  which 
figures  are  not  available.  (Estimates  based  on  statistics  in  Population  volumes  of  Thirteenth 
Census,  and  maps  in  Century  of  Population  Growth).  Pitkin,  T.,  Statistical  View,  533,  says: 
"In  1790,  the  whole  population  of  this  country  ....  was  only  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
thousand  arid  eighty-four." 

•  Kentucky,  687,917 ;  Tennessee,  681,904  ;  New  York  counties  west  of  Syracuse,  625,452 ; 
Pennsylvania  counties  west  of  Bedford,  384,891 ;  Washington  and  Allegany  Counties,  Mary- 
land, 35,877 ;  counties  now  composing  West  Virginia,  176,924.  In  Georgia,  counties  created 
west  of  the  frontier  of  1790  contained  281,612  persons  in   1830.    Adding  the  population  of  the 


84  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

economic  importance,  the  West  of  1830  approached  the  whole  United 
States  of  1790.  The  value  of  the  exports  of  1790  is  fairly  matched  by 
that  of  the  surplus  produce  of  the  West  forty  years  later,  and  the  ton- 
nage employed  in  export  trade  at  the  former  epoch  by  that  em- 
ployed on  the  western  waters  at  the  latter.^  Of  course,  this  trans- 
formation of  the  wilderness  was  partially  counterbalanced  by  the 
growth  of  the  older  region,  which  shows  an  increase  in  population 
between  1790  and  1830  of  about  four  millions.  But  the  change  in 
relative  weight  is  indicated  by  a  sixfold  increase  in  the  ratio  of 
transmontane  population  to  the  total,  and  a  corresponding  move- 
ment westward  of  the  center  of  population  and  of  economic  and 
political  power.  New  states  carved  from  what  was  wilderness  when 
Washington  was  inaugurated  elected  more  than  one-third  of  the 
members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  under  Jackson — more 
than  all  of  the  South  Atlantic  States  and  nearly  twice  as  many  as 
the  whole  of  New  England.®  The  result  was  a  disturbance  of  the 
former  relations  of  economic  groups.  The  weight  of  the  commer- 
cial, manufacturing,  agrarian,  and  planting  interests  was  altered, 
and  new  adjustments,  new  combinations  and  alliances,  necessitated. 
Politically  the  results  were  new  issues,  new  sectional  antagonisms 


northwestern,    southwestern,    and   transmississippi    states   and   territories,   the   total   for    1830    is 
5,172,532.    Pitkin's  estimate   (1835)   was  "between  four  and  five  millions."    Op.  eit.,  533. 

In  1790  the  settled  area  (at  least  two  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile)  measured  238,935 
square  miles  ;  in  1830,  632,717.    Century  of  Population  Growth,  54. 

'  Value  of  all  goods  exported  from  the  United  States  for  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1790, 
$20,205,156.  American  State  Papers,  Commerce  and  Navigation,  I,  34.  "We  hazard  nothing 
in  estimating  the  whole  surplus  production  of  what  we  have  called  the  western  country,  in  1834, 
at  from  $28,000,000  to  $30,000,000 ;  being  about  fifty  per  cent,  more  than  the  whole  exports 
of  the  United  States  in  1790."  Pitkin,  Stat.  View,  534  et  seq.  If  the  Gulf  region  and  lower 
Mississippi  Valley  were  included  in  the  estimate  the  total  would  be  much  larger. 

Total  tonnage,  American  and  foreign,  employed  in  export  trade,  1789,  233,983.  Ibid.,  352. 
Total  tonnage  employed  on  western  waters,   1834,  about  230,000.    Ibid.,  536. 

'  Representation   in  the  House,  compiled  from  Thirteenth   Census,   Population,    I,   37 : 

Just  before  Just  after 

Apportionment        Apportionment        Apportionment 
of  1790  of  1830  of  1830 

New    England    29  39  38 

Middle   States    29  67  76 

South   Atlantic    45  60  60 

West     3*  47  67 

The  relative  decline  of  the  old  states  is  shown  even  more  strikingly  by  the  loss  and 
gain  in  the  representation  of  individual  states,  as  the  ratio  of  representation  rose.  Thus 
Massachusetts,  represented  by  14  members  under  the  first  apportionment,  rose  to  17  under  that 
of  1800,  but  fell  to  13  in  1810  and  to  12  in  1830.  Connecticut  likewise  fell  from  7  in  1790  to  6 
in  1830.  On  the  other  hand,  states  with  a  "West"  within  their  bounds  gained ;  Georgia's  in- 
crease was  from  2  to  9  ;  New  York's  from  10  to  40  ;  Pennsylvania's,  13  to  28  ;  Virginia's,  19 
to  21.  After  1830  even  New  York  felt  the  drain  of  the  newer  West  and  lost  representation 
through  the  higher  ratio,  its  delegation  falling  to  34,  33,  and  31  at  successive  census  periods. 
♦Kentucky  2,  after  1792;  Tennessee  1,  after  1796. 


THE  ERA  OF  NATIONALISM  85 

and  affinities,  and  finally  new  party  groupings.  As  the  develop- 
ment of  the  West  was  a  prime  cause  of  the  disturbance  of  the  old 
order  and  the  source  of  many  of  the  new  issues,  so  its  growth  in  po- 
litical power  made  it  a  leading  factor  in  determining  the  readjust- 
ment. 

With  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  the  energies  of  the  United 
States,  for  a  quarter-century  so  largely  concerned  with  European 
relations,  were  released  for  the  furtherance  of  domestic  interests. 
The  reorganization  of  finances  and  the  currency,  and  the  attempt 
to  organize  the  nation's  resources  as  a  means  of  preparation  against 
the  contingency  of  future  war,  were  fruits  of  the  conflict  just 
closed  which  were  presently  overshadowed  by  the  problems  arising 
from  the  wonderful  internal  development  of  the  country.^  The 
weight  of  these  new  problems  fell  upon  that  group  of  "Young  Re- 
publicans" who  had  come  forward  with  the  war,  and  whose  domi- 
nance had  been  foreshadowed  by  their  success  in  forcing  a  war 
policy  upon  the  pacifist  president  of  the  generation  then  passing 
from  active  life;  and  under  the  lead  of  Clay,  Calhoun,  Grundy, 
Cheves,  and  Porter  this  rising  group  approached  its  task  over- 
flowing with  the  spirit  of  a  new  nationalism  which  swept  the  coun- 
try with  the  return  of  peace. 

The  experiences  of  the  war  period  unmistakably  taught  the 
need  of  a  larger  exercise  of  federal  power.  The  evils  of  irre- 
deemable bank  paper  cried  aloud  for  that  remedy  which  had  been 
denied  in  1811  when  the  Republicans  refused  to  recharter  the 
United  States  Bank.  The  dependence  of  the  country  upon  for- 
eign sources  of  supply  for  manufactured  goods  of  prime  necessity, 
at  a  time  when  the  enemy's  ships  patrolled  the  paths  of  ocean  com- 
merce, was  a  convincing  argument  in  favor  of  that  protection  which 
Hamilton  had  advocated.  The  difficulty  in  handling  troops  and  sup- 
plies in  the  frontier  campaigns,  because  of  the  want  of  military 
roads,  brought  the  question  of  internal  improvements  forward  as 
one  of  the  most  pressing  problems  of  the  new  day. 


•  "What  will  you  do  for  news  no^v  that  Napoleon  is  vanquished?"  Thomas  Ritchie,  editor 
of  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  asked  himself  in  order  to  answer:  "Have  the  Americans  no  water- 
courses to  clear  ?  No  canals  to  construct  ?  no  roads  to  form  ?  no  bridges  to  erect  ?...." 
Ambler,  Thomas  Ritchie,  63.  Contemporaries  had  a  vague  feeling  that  the  close  of  the  war 
would  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  politics.  ".  .  .  .  The  great  commotions  of  the 
old  world,  the  effects  of  which  were  felt  in  both  periods  [Federalist  and  Republican]  of  our 
governmental  history,  have  just  ceased,  and  of  course,  the  next  administration  will  be  placed 
in  a  situation,  in  many  respects,  unlike  that  of  all  their  predecessors."  Albany  Daily  Advocate, 
quoted  by  Supporter,  Oct.  29,  1816. 


86  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

By  the  logic  of  such  events  even  the  Old  School  leaders  were 
swept  into  the  current  of  the  new  nationalism.  In  his  "Notes  on 
Virginia,"  in  1785,  Jefferson  had  written:  "For  the  general  opera- 
tions of  manufacture,  let  our  workshops  remain  in  Europe.  It  is 
better  to  carry  provisions  and  materials  to  workmen  there,  than  to 
bring  them  to  the  provisions  and  materials,  and  with  them  their 
manners  and  principles."  ^**  But  in  1816  he  confessed  to  an  altered 
opinion.  "We  have  experienced  what  we  did  not  then  believe,  that 
there  exists  both  profligacy  and  power  enough  to  exclude  us  from 
the  field  of  interchange  with  other  nations :  that  to  be  independent 
for  the  comforts  of  life  we  must  fabricate  them  ourselves.  We 
must  now  place  the  manufacturer  by  the  side  of  the  agriculturist. 
....  Shall  we  make  our  own  comforts,  or  go  without  them,  at  the 
will  of  a  foreign  nation?  He,  therefore,  who  is  now  against  do- 
mestic manufacture,  must  be  for  reducing  us  either  to  dependence 
on  that  foreign  nation,  or  to  be  clothed  in  skins,  and  to  live  like  wild 
beasts  in  dens  and  caverns."  ^^ 

President  Madison's  message  of  1815,  frankly  admitting  that 
the  doctrine  of  laissez  faire  was  subject  to  exceptions,  pled  for  such 
an  adjustment  of  the  tariff  as  would  make  for  economic  prepared- 
ness.^^ In  the  same  message  he  called  the  attention  of  Congress  to 
the  "great  importance  of  establishing  throughout  our  country  the 
roads  and  canals  which  can  best  be  executed  under  the  national 
authority,"  urging  not  only  the  economic  value  but  "the  political 
effect  of  these  facilities  for  intercommunication  in  bringing  and 
binding  more  closely  together  the  various  parts  of  our  extended 
confederacy."  A  year  later  he  recurred  to  the  subject.^^  Monroe, 
like  his  two  predecessors,  favored  encouragement  of  domestic  man- 
ufactures, declaring  in  his  inaugural  that  "we  ought  not  to  depend 
in  the  degree  we  have  done  on  supplies  from  other  countries.  While 
we  are  thus  dependent  the  sudden  event  of  war,  unsought  and 
unexpected,  can  not  fail  to  plunge  us  into  the  most  serious  diffi- 
culties." ^* 


1"  See  above,  37,  /.  n.  104. 

11  To  Benjamin   Austin,   Ford,    Writings  of  Jefferson,   XIV,  389-393. 

1-  "In  selecting  the  branches  more  especially  entitled  to  the  public  patronage,  a  pref- 
erence is  obviously  claimed  by  such  as  will  relieve  the  United  States  from  a  dependence  on 
foreign  supplies  ....  for  articles  necessary  for  the  public  defence  or  connected  with  the 
primary   wants  of   individuals."    Richardson,   Messages  of   the   Presidents,   I,    567. 

"/bid.,  576. 

^*  Ibid.,  II,  8. 


THE  ERA  OF  NATIONALISM  87 

In  these  utterances  the  veterans  were  but  following  "with 
caution  and  good  heed"  the  new  leaders  upon  whom  had  devolved 
the  real  initiative.  The  preparedness  program  of  the  new  school 
was  set  forth  by  Clay  in  a  speech  in  opposition  to  the  reduction  of 
the  direct  tax  imposed  during  the  war.  The  unsatisfactory  state 
of  our  relations  with  foreign  countries,  he  urged,  was  a  warning 
of  the  possibility  of  further  wars  which  made  it  prudent  to  in- 
crease the  standing  army  and  to  augment  the  navy.  As  part  of  the 
same  system  of  national  defence,  he  wished  the  construction  of 
roads  and  canals  to  unite  the  extremes  of  the  country,  and  the 
protection  of  manufactures,  both  to  provide  a  source  of  supply  for 
our  wants  when  commerce  should  be  interrupted  by  hostilities, 
and  to  create  resources  the  taxation  of  which  in  war  time  would 
replace  the  import  duties.^'^  Clay's  argument,  vigorously  seconded 
by  Calhoun,  was  several  times  reiterated  during  the  discussion  of 
the  tariff  bill  of  1816.  "Whenever,"  said  Calhoun,  "we  have  the 
misfortune  to  be  involved  in  a  war  with  a  nation  dominant  on  the 
ocean  ....  the  moneyed  resources  of  the  country  to  a  great  extent 

must  fail Commerce  and  agriculture,  till  lately  almost  the 

only,  still  constitute  the  principal,  sources  of  our  wealth 

They  both  depend  on  foreign  markets Our  commerce  neither 

is  nor  can  be  protected  by  the  present  means  of  the  country.  What, 
then,  are  the  effects  of  a  war  with  a  maritime  power — with  Eng- 
land? Our  commerce  annihilated,  spreading  individual  misery  and 
producing  national  poverty;  our  agriculture  cut  off  from  its  ac- 
customed markets The  failure  of  the  wealth  and  resources  of 

the  nation  necessarily  involved  in  the  ruin  of  its  finances  and  its 

currency When  our  manufactures  are  grown  to  a  certain 

perfection,  as  they  soon  will  be  under  the  fostering  care  of  Gov- 
ernment, we  will  no  longer  experience  these  evils.  The  farmer 
will  find  a  ready  market  for  his  surplus  produce;  and,  what  is 
almost  of  equal  consequence,  a  certain  and  cheap  supply  of  all  his 

wants The  arm  of  Government  will  be  nerved ;  and  taxes  in 

the  hour  of  danger  ....  may  be  greatly  increased To  give 

perfection  to  this  state  of  things,  it  is  necessary  to  add,  as  soon  as 
possible,  a  system  of  internal  improvements,  and  at  least  such  an 
extension  of  our  navy  as  will  prevent  the  cutting  off  our  coasting 
trade."  ^'^ 


1=  Works  of  Clay   (Federal  edition),  VI,  83-99,  esp.  98. 
i»  Cralle,   R.   K.,    Works  of  John  C.   Calhoun,   II,  164-168. 


88  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

It  is  plain  that  the  emphasis  in  these  discussions  is  laid  upon 
the  safety  of  the  nation  in  time  of  war.  The  force  of  the  tariff 
argument  was  derived  from  the  relation  of  economic  independence 
to  national  preparedness,  and  protectionism  was  fairly  free  in 
this  stage  from  the  suspicion  of  seeking  to  favor  the  manufactur- 
ing interest  to  the  disadvantage  of  commerce  or  planting.  Both  of 
the  great  leaders  disavowed  such  motives.  "It  was  the  duty  of 
this  country,  as  a  means  of  defence,  to  encourage  the  domestic  in- 
dustry of  the  country I  lay  the  claims  of  the  manufacturers 

entirely  out  of  view,"  said  Calhoun."  It  may  have  seemed  proba- 
ble that  commerce  and  agriculture  would  resume  with  peace  sub- 
stantially their  ante-bellum  status,  and  the  patriotic  appeal  of  the 
nationalist  argument  explains  the  small  part  which  sectionalism 
played  in  the  discussion  of  this  tariff.^®  Calhoun's  explanation  of 
his  own  attitude  may  be  accepted  as  fairly  typical  of  opinion  in 
the  non-manufacturing  districts:  ''Coming,  as  he  did,  from  the 
South,  having,  in  common  with  his  immediate  constituents,  no  in- 
terest but  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  in  selling  its  products  high, 
and  buying  cheap  the  wants  and  conveniences  of  life,  no  motive 
could  be  attributed  to  him  but  such  as  were  disinterested."  ^^  In- 
cidentally there  appeared  during  this  debate,  however,  a  view 
which  was  soon  to  overshadow  that  which  dominated  in  1816.  Cal- 
houn had  declared  that  ''When  our  manufactures  are  grown  to  a 
certain  perfection  ....  the  farmer  will  find  a  ready  market  for 
his  surplus  produce ;  and  ....  a  certain  and  cheap  supply  of  all  his 

wants To  give  perfection  to  this  state  of  things,  it  will  be 

necessary  to  add,  as  soon  as  possible,  a  system  of  internal  im- 
provements." In  these  words  was  foreshadowed  a  scheme  of  do- 
mestic development  which  would  stress  national  self-sufficiency 
even  more  for  the  sake  of  economic  prosperity  than  with  the 
thought  of  safety  in  war  time.  This  ideal  appears  now  and  then 
in  the  discussions,  and  was  expounded  with  much  force  in  the  report 
of  a  committee  of  Congress,  early  in  1816,  which  predicted  the 
beneficial  results  of  protection  in  the  following  terms:  "Different 


1''  Annals,   Fourteenth  Cong.,   1  sess.,  837. 

1*  See  below,  117,  for  opposition  to  this  bill. 

^*  Annal»,  Fourteenth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  1329.  With  the  views  of  Clay  and  Calhoun  con- 
trast those  of  Ingham,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  member  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  who 
urged  that  protection  should  not  be  confined  to  articles  indispensable  in  time  of  war  and  of 
first  necessity  in  time  of  peace.  Stanwood,  E.,  American  Tariff  Controversies  in  the  Nine* 
t€enth  Century,  I,  148. 


THE  ERA  OF  NATIONALISM  80 

sections  of  the  union  will,  according  to  their  position,  the  climate, 
the  population,  the  habits  of  the  people,  and  the  nature  of  the 
soil,  strike  into  that  line  of  industry  which  is  best  adapted  to  their 
interest  and  the  good  of  the  whole ;  and  active  and  free  intercourse, 
promoted  and  facilitated  by  roads  and  canals,  will  ensue.  The 
states  that  are  most  disposed  to  manufactures,  as  regular  occupa- 
tions, will  draw  from  the  agricultural  states  all  the  raw  materials 
which  they  want,  and  not  an  inconsiderable  portion  also  of  the 
necessaries  of  life ;  while  the  latter  will,  in  addition  to  the  benefits 
which  they  at  present  enjoy,  always  command  in  peace  or  in  war, 
at  moderate  prices,  every  species  of  manufacture,  that  their  wants 
may  require.  Should  they  be  inclined  to  manufacture  for  them- 
selves, they  can  do  so  with  success,  because  they  have  all  the  means 
in  their  power  to  erect  and  to  extend  at  pleasure  manufacturing 
establishments.  Our  wants  being  supplied  by  our  own  itigenuity 
and  industry,  exportation  of  specie  to  pay  for  foreign  manufactures 
will  cease."  ^° 

Here,  then,  is  an  adaptation  of  Adam  Smith's  theory  of  free 
trade  among  nations  in  which  the  great  sections  of  the  Union  take 
the  place  of  nations,  and  Smith's  ideal  world  economy  is  replaced 
by  a  theory  of  national  self-sufficiency  based  upon  the  vastness  and 
diversity  of  resources  of  the  different  parts;  the  sections,  bound 
together  by  improved  means  of  communication  and  transportation, 
should  become  reciprocally  dependent  but  collectively  independent 
of  the  rest  of  the  world.  This  scheme  of  a  national  economy,  des- 
tined to  become  known  as  the  "American  System,"  soon  sup- 
planted the  preparedness  program  of  the  New  Republicans.  The 
phrase  was  due  to  Clay,  with  whose  name  the  policy  came  to  be 
most  closely  associated.  When  Calhoun  withdrew  from  the  con- 
gressional forum  to  accept  the  war  portfolio  in  Monroe's  cabinet, 
Clay  become  the  central  figure  in  the  group,  and  it  was  he  who 


20  Annals,  Fourteenth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  1665  et  seq.  Cf.  P.  B.  Porter's  recognition  of  the 
division  of  the  United  States  into  eastern  and  western  sections  by  the  mountains,  with  the 
agriculturists  on  the  one  side  and  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  on  the  other.  This  diver- 
sity, which  it  had  been  asserted  would  lead  to  separation,  he  believed,  might  be  made  the 
means  of  closer  union :  "It  will  be  obviously  for  the  interests  of  the  interior  States  to  ex- 
change the  great  surplus  products  of  their  lands,  and  the  raw  materials  of  manufactures,  for 
the  merchandise  and  manufactured  articles  of  the  Eastern  States,  and  on  the  other  hand  the 
interests  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  the  Atlantic  will  be  equally  promoted  by  this 
internal  commerce ;  and  it  is  by  promoting  this  commerce  by  encouraging  and  facilitating  this 
intercourse — it  is  by  producing  a  mutual  dependence  of  interests  between  these  two  great 
sections,  and  by  these  means  only,  that  the  United  States  can  ever  be  kept  together."  Annal$, 
Eleventh  Cons:.,  1  and  2  Bess.,  1388. 


W  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

gathered  together  the  hints  and  suggestions  of  lesser  men,  har- 
monizing and  systematizing  them,  and  finally  giving  them  their 
clearest  and  most  convincing  form  of  expression.  The  depression 
of  all  branches  of  industry  during  the  early  twenties,  by  centering 
attention  upon  the  need  of  remedial  measures,  did  much  to  crystal- 
lize the  theory,  which  reached  maturity  about  1824.^^  "We  have 
shaped  our  industry,  our  navigation,  and  our  commerce,  in  refer- 
ence to  an  extraordinary  war  in  Europe,  and  to  foreign  markets 
which  no  longer  exist,"  said  Clay,  in  discussing  the  tariff  bill  of 
1824.22  "The  consequence  of  the  termination  of  the  war  of  Europe 
has  been  the  resumption  of  European  commerce,  European  navi- 
gation, and  the  extension  of  European  agriculture  and  European 
industry  in  all  its  branches.  Europe,  therefore,  has  no  longer  oc- 
casion, to  anything  like  the  same  extent  as  that  she  had  during  her 
wars,  for  American  commerce,  American  navigation,  the  produce 
of  American  industry."  Continuing,  he  explained  the  relation  of 
the  market  for  the  surplus  produce  of  all  forms  of  labor  to  the 
prosperity  of  society,  and  pointed  out  that  the  surplus  produce  of 
the  United  States  was  increasing  much  more  rapidly  than  the  con- 
suming power  of  Europe.  Besides,  it  was  the  policy  of  European 
states  to  reject  the  food  products  of  America,  in  order  to  foster 
their  own  agriculture ;  receiving  only  those  raw  materials  for  their 
factories  which  they  could  not  produce.  "A  genuine  American  pol- 
icy," while  cherishing  the  foreign  market,  would  create  also  a  home 
market  for  the  products  of  our  agriculture  "in  all  its  varieties,  of 
planting,  farming  and  grazing."  "If  we  cannot  sell,  we  cannot 
buy."  European  manufactures  cannot  be  had  by  the  American 
farmer  who  has  nothing  the  foreigner  will  take  in  exchange.  Nor, 
since  the  planter  cannot  purchase  the  entire  surplus  of  the  farmer, 
can  his  staple  exports  pay  for  the  imports  of  both.  The  establish- 
ment of  manufactures  would  create  a  home  market  for  the  planter 


21  The  prominence  of  the  West  in  the  agitation  for  increased  protection,  while  the  Act 
of  1816  was  still  in  force,  is  noteworthy.  In  Pittsburg,  one  of  the  earliest  centers  of  manu- 
factures beyond  the  mountains,  it  was  found  that  the  depression  from  which  her  factories 
suffered  extended  to  the  farmers,  by  curtailing  the  local  market  for  their  surplus.  McMaster, 
History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  IV,  344.  The  mutual  dependence  of  farm  and  fac- 
tory was  thus  shown  by  an  object  lesson.  Baldwin,  of  the  Committee  on  Manufactures,  who 
reported  the  tariff  bill  of  1820,  represented  the  Pittsburg  district.  In  reporting  the  bill  he  tried 
hard  to  meet  the  criticism  of  those  who  contended  that  protection  favored  particular  inter- 
ests at  the  expense  of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  "If  this  bill  ....  cannot  be  supported  on  na- 
tion principles,  we  are  willing  that  it  should  fall,  and  that  its  fate  shall  be  ours."  Annals, 
Sixteenth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  II,   1916  et  seq. 

-~  Works  of  Clay   (Federal  edition),  VI,  254-294.    Cf.  speech  on  bill  of  1820,  ibid.,  219-237. 


THE  ERA  OF  NATIONALISM  91 

and  farmer,  and  a  source  of  supply  for  their  necessities  by  way  of 
exchange.  "The  superiority  of  the  home  market  results,  first,  from 
its  steadiness  and  comparative  certainty  at  all  times ;  secondly,  from 
the  creation  of  reciprocal  interest;  thirdly,  from  its  greater  se- 
curity ;  and,  lastly,  from  an  ultimate  and  not  distant  augmentation 
of  consumption  (and  consequently  of  comfort)  from  increased 
quantity  and  reduced  prices.  But  this  home  market,  highly  desir- 
able as  it  is,  can  only  be  created  and  cherished  by  the  protection  of 
our  own  legislation  against  the  inevitable  prostration  of  our  in- 
dustry which  must  ensue  from  the  action  of  foreign  policy  and  leg- 
islation." 2^ 


2.   Development  of  Economic  Life  and  Thought 
OF  the  West 

Although  they  spoke  in  terms  of  nationalism,  the  Republican 
leaders  voiced  the  demands  of  the  rising  western  section  of  the 
Union.  Whether  he  led  or  followed.  Clay's  opinions  especially,  ex- 
cept in  the  matter  of  the  Second  United  States  Bank,^*  show  a  re- 
markable correspondence  with  western  sentiment.  During  the 
years  1815  to  1830,  the  western  movement,  swelled  by  many  favor- 
ing influences,  reached  unprecedented  volume.  By  1815  the  older 
transalleghany  settlements  were  already  well  out  of  the  pioneer 
stage,  and  the  frontier  line  was  advancing  in  form  of  a  wedge  the 
point  of  which  was  rapidly  ascending  the  Missouri,  while  the  ir- 
regular sides  slanted  back  to  the  northeast  and  southeast,  crossing 
Illinois  and  Indiana  well  south  of  the  center,  and  following  roughly 
the  Tennessee  boundary  and  the  Oconee  River  on  the  South.  The 
banks  of  the  Mississippi  bore  scattered  settlements,  and  the  State 
of  Louisiana  formed  a  kind  of  island  of  population  lying  in  advance 
of  the  main  frontier.  Within  a  few  years  after  the  signing  of  the 
Peace  of  Ghent,  the  acquisition  of  Florida  and  a  series  of  treaties 
with  the  Indian  tribes,  now  lacking  the  support  of  foreign  influ- 
ences, opened  to  white  occupation  vast  tracts  in  the  Northwest  and 
Southwest.  The  land  laws  of  1820  and  1821  made  easier  than  ever 
before  the  acquisition  of  land  by  the  poor  pioneer,  while  the  vast 
extent  of  the  frontier  favored  the  squatter  by  diminishing  the  prob- 


23  Cf.   nationalism  of  the  speech  of  Martindale  of  New  York  on  this  bill.    Annals,   Eigh- 
teenth Cong.,  1  sess.,  I,  1631. 

2*  See  below,  185,  /.  n.  32. 


92  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

ability  of  government  interference.  The  diversion  of  New  Eng- 
land agriculture  from  grain  raising  to  wool-growing  and  dairying, 
under  stress  of  competition  with  the  fresh  lands  of  the  West,  dis- 
placed a  portion  of  the  population  which,  not  taking  kindly  to  labor 
in  the  rising  factories,  joined  the  westward-moving  stream.  The 
culture  of  short-staple  cotton,  made  profitable  by  the  gin,  was  in- 
vading the  southern  piedmont,  displacing  the  small  farm  economy 
and  converting  the  farmer  into  a  planter  or  driving  him  to  the  fron- 
tier in  Alabama  or  Illinois.-^ 

Prior  to  1840,  most  of  New  England's  contribution  to  this  mi- 
gration was  absorbed  by  western  New  York,  that  portion  of  it 
which  reached  the  Northwestern  states  furnishing  only  a  sprinkling 
in  the  total  population.^*^  For  several  years  after  1815,  indeed,  the 
chief  element  in  the  settlement  of  both  Northwest  and  Southwest 
was  supplied  by  that  "piedmontese"  stock  which  had  pioneered  the 
way  into  the  transalleghany  country  a  generation  before,  and  which 
now  felt  a  new  impulse  in  the  push  of  the  advancing  plantation 
system.  The  spread  of  this  stock  from  its  original  western  centers 
and  the  addition  of  newcomers  from  its  old  seats  bore  fruit 
before  1820  in  the  four  new  states  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  Mississippi, 
and  Alabama.-^  For  a  decade  after  the  war,  however,  the  Ohio 
Valley  was  the  heart  of  the  West,  and  this  region,  where  society 
was  in  the  making,  was  in  this  period  coming  rapidly  to  self-con- 
sciousness, and  was  not  backward  in  voicing  the  demand  that  its 
interests  be  promptly  and  effectively  provided  for. 

The  significance  of  the  rise  of  this  new  section  has  been  indi- 
cated by  a  recent  writer  in  the  statement  that  the  "improvement  in 
the  economic  condition  of  the  West  which  set  in  about  the  time  of 
the  second  war  with  England,  and  which  in  a  decade  or  two  entirely 
changed  the  relation  of  that  region  to  the  rest  of  the  country,"  is 
"the  most  important  event  in  our  economic  history  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century."  ^^  Contemporaries  were  not  un- 
aware that  the  star  of  economic  and  political  empire  was  passing 
westward.     The  course  of  the  Federalists  for  years  is  proof  of  this. 


=5  Turner,  F.  J.,  Rise  of  the  New  West,  Chaps.  1-6. 

2'  Mathews,  L.   K.,  Expansion  of  New  England. 

-^  As  late  as  1850,  one-third  of  the  population  of  Indiana  consisted  of  Carolinians  and 
their  children.  Turner,  F.  J.,  "Dominant  Forces  in  Western  Life,"  in  Atlantic  Monthly, 
LXXIX. 

*'  Callender,  G.  S.,  "Early  Transportation  and  Banking  Enterprises,"  in  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Econoinica,  XVII,  116  et  acq. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  93 

Excepting  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maine,  and  Georgia,  which 
still  included  unsettled  areas  within  their  bounds,  the  population 
of  the  coast  states  had  come  almost  to  a  standstill,  and  the  exodus 
was  so  great  as  to  cause  grave  concern  to  the  authorities.^'*  In- 
quiries were  made  under  legislative  authority,  especially  in  the 
South,  to  discover  what  could  be  done  to  counteract  the  attractions 
of  the  West,  and  resulted  in  numerous  schemes  of  internal  im- 
provements by  states  to  facilitate  the  marketing  of  the  produce 
of  the  interior  farms.^''  Privately,  far-sighted  men  were  advising 
the  younger  generation  to  "Go  West."  Even  King,  the  last  presi- 
dential candidate  of  the  Federalist  party,  held  the  opinion  that 
"Unless  the  navigation  and  commerce  of  the  United  States  become 
more  extensive  and  prosperous,  the  Northern  States  will  continue 
to  lose  their  importance,  and,  with  this,  their  population  and  wealth 
will  be  certain  to  suffer.  If  we  are  not  to  be  commercial,  but  ag- 
ricultural, and,  if  you  please  manufacturing,  the  Western  country 
ought,  and  will  be,  the  favored  region  in  which  both  will  prosper."  ^^ 

The  story  of  the  economic  development  of  the  West  during  its 
first  half -century  fs  an  epitome  of  the  history  of  the  evolution  of 
modern  industrial  society.  From  the  self-sufficing  household  it 
advanced  to  a  local  economy,  then  to  a  provincial,  and  before  the 
mid-twenties  was  the  advocate  of  a  national  economy. 

The  transalleghany  pioneer  had  found  himself  cut  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  by  stretches  of  unpeopled  wilderness  and  moun- 
tain. Thrown  upon  his  own  resources,  his  first  productive  efforts 
were  consumed  in  securing  the  rudest  necessities  of  existence.  The 
scanty  yield  of  his  crude  agriculture  was  supplemented  by  the  use 
of  the  rifle,  and  his  manner  of  life  sank  almost  to  the  level  of  that 
of  the  savage.  No  division  of  labor  was  possible  except  within  the 
household,  which  constituted  a  self-sufficient  economic  unit.  Such 
was  the  economy  which  moved  westward  with  the  frontier,  but  the 
older  settlements  emerged  from  this  primitive  stage  as  the  pro- 


29  The  following  is  a  typical  press  comment  of  the  period :  "That  alarming  disease 
denominated  the  Ohio  fever,  (says  a  New-Hampshire  paper)  continues  to  rage  in  many  parta 
of  New-England,  by  which  vast  numbers  are  taken  ojf.  In  Connecticut  it  has  spread  to  such  a 
surprising  extent,  that  Gov.  Wolcott,  considers  'an  investigation  of  the  causes  which  produce 
it  as  by  far  the  most  important  subject  which  can  engage  the  attention  of  the  legislature.'  " 
Supporter,  Aug.  12,  1817. 

so  Nilea  Register,   IX,  149,   165. 

»i  To  Gore,  Nov.  5,  1816.  King,  Life  of  King,  VI,  32-34.  His  forecast  was  probably  a 
factor  in  the  decision  of  his  son  Edward  to  settle  in  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  where  he  began  to  prac- 
tice law  at  the  close  of  the  war. 


94  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

duction  of  the  farmer  became  more  than  sufficient  for  the  require- 
ments of  his  own  family.  An  agricultural  surplus  meant  the  pos- 
sibility of  exchange  by  the  farmer  for  the  products  of  the  labor  of 
others;  it  meant  the  possibility  of  distant  commerce  and  of  local 
division  of  labor,  and  in  a  measure  it  resulted  in  both.  Isolation 
affected  the  West,  however,  much  as  commercial  restrictions  and 
war  did  the  old  states ;  or  to  vary  the  comparison,  it  was  equivalent 
to  high  duties  on  imported  goods.  The  vast  distances  which  sepa- 
rated the  new  settlements  from  the  markets  of  Europe  and  the  At- 
lantic coast,  and  the  mountain  barrier  which  interposed  along  the 
direct  routes  to  the  East,  made  all  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  so  difficult  that  the  West  was  compelled  so  far  as  possible  to 
manufacture  for  itself.^^ 

With  this  differentiation  of  economic  activity,  exchange  began 
between  town  and  country,  the  farmer  finding  a  home  market  fn 
supplying  the  needs  of  men  of  other  occupations,  and  receiving  in 
his  turn  the  products  of  the  craftsman.  Thus  the  West  entered 
the  second  stage  of  its  economic  development.  The  first  manufac- 
tures were,  as  the  term  literally  implies,  handicrafts,  but  the  ap- 
plication of  power  to  machinery  appeared  early  in  the  form  of  mills 
for  grinding  wheat  and  corn,  driven  by  wind,  water,  or  horse- 
power. By  the  beginning  of  the  War  of  1812,  factories  were  ris- 
ing in  the  upper  Ohio  Valley.  Even  as  early  as  1809  Cincinnati 
had  two  cotton  mills,  and  at  about  that  time  a  factory  was  erected 
there  for  the  production  of  cotton  and  woolen  machinery.^^  Within 
a  half-dozen  years  its  output  became  considerable,  and  mills  for 
the  manufacture  of  various  fabrics,  operated  by  steam  power,  were 


'°  Early  observers  found  in  the  isolation  of  the  West  an  omen  of  prosperity.  Harris, 
who  visited  the  West  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  commented :  "So  circum- 
stanced they  will  be  provident  of  their  use  of  foreign  articles,  they  will  prevent  their  need  of 
many  of  them  by  setting  up  various  manufactures,  the  raw  materials  of  which  they  so 
abundantly  possess,  and  thus  supply  other  places  without  needing  or  being  able  to  receive  any 
return  but  specie.  The  consequence  will  be  that  this  interior  country  must  every  year  become 
more  independent  of  other  countries,  more  prosperous,  and  more  happy."  Journal  of  a  Tour 
into  the  Territory  Northwest  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  1803,  in  Thwaites,  Early  Western 
Travels,  III,  180. 

The  West,  like  the  East,  felt  to  some  extent  the  impulse  due  to  the  artificial  restrictions 
on  foreign  commerce  in  the  form  of  the  embargo  and  non-intercourse  acts,  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  message  of  Governor  Huntington,  of  Ohio,  in  1810,  directing  attention  to  the  bene- 
fits of  home  manufactures:  "The  embarrassments  imposed  on  our  commerce  by  foreign  na- 
tions, has  Isic]  turned  the  attention  of  the  people  in  many  of  the  states  to  domestic  manu- 
factures. Some  establishments  for  that  purpose  have  been  commenced  in  this  state  .  .  .  ." 
Message  printed  in  Supporter,  Dec.  22,  1810. 

*'  Goodwin,  F.  P.,  "The  Rise  of  Manufactures  in  the  Miami  Country,"  in  Amer.  Hist. 
R«v.,  Xn,  768. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  95 

built  throughout  the  Valley  from  Pittsburg  and  Steubenville  to 
Lexington  and  Cincinnati.^* 

Within  a  decade  of  the  close  of  the  war,  the  manufactures  of 
the  region  attained  considerable  proportions  and  variety,  including 
steam  engines,  agricultural  implements,  carriages  and  wagons, 
milling  machinery,  hats,  caps,  cloth  and  clothing,  hardware,  nails, 
copper,  tinware,  glass,  pottery,  brick  and  lime,  soap  and  candles, 
flour,  leather,  lumber,  liquors,  packed  meats,  linseed  oil,  paints  and 
cordage.^^  Large  quantities  of  these  products  were  marketed  not 
only  in  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana,  but  in  the  lower  Mississippi 
Valley,^"  and  engaged  a  considerable  percentage  of  the  population 
in  the  more  advanced  communities." 

This  extension  of  the  scope  of  western  industry  ushered  in 
what  we  have  called  the  provincial  era,  covering  roughly  the  de- 
cade following  the  war.  The  contemporary  expansion  of  the  plan- 
tation system  in  the  South  enlarged  the  market  for  the  produce  of 
western  farms,  and  gave  the  means  with  which  to  command  goods 
imported  from  quarters  of  the  globe  where  the  West  sold  nothing. 
The  western  attitude  towards  industry  and  trade  at  the  beginning 
of  this  epoch  is  indicated  by  the  opinion  of  one  of  Cincinnati's  lead- 
ing residents:  "To  convert  into  manufacturers  the  hands  engaged 
in  clearing  and  improving  a  new  country,  would  be  a  mistaken 

policy In  the  case  in  which  a  new  country  is  contiguous  to  an 

older,  of  dense  population,  which  can  exchange  manufactures  for 
subsistence,  it  may  even  be  advisable  to  defer  manufacturing  i'n 
the  former  to  a  late  period.  But  where  a  new  country  must  trans- 
port its  surplus  agricultural  production  to  a  great  distance,  and 
import  the  necessary  manufactures  from  shops  equally  remote,  it 
may  be  advisable  to  commence  manufacturing  much  earlier.  It 
must  not,  however,  attempt  to  convert  its  farmers  into  tradesmen. 
They  should  be  imported  instead  of  their  manufactures.  The  ranks 
of  agriculture  would  then  remain  entire;  the  simple  process  of 


**  Lippincott,  Isaac,  "Pioneer  Industry  in  the  West,"  in  Journal  of  Political  Economy, 
XVIII,  269  et  acq.  Gephart,  W.  F.,  Transportation  and  Industrial  Development  in  the  Middle 
West.  90-94. 

8S  Ibid.,  and  Goodwin,   "Rise  of  Manufactures,"   764. 

»»/6td.,  762. 

'■^  The  census  of  1820  divided  persons  in  gainful  occupations  into  three  classes :  those 
engaged  in  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures.  In  the  counties  of  the  Miami  Valley  the 
percenlage  of  the  industrial  population  engaged  in  manufacturing  (probably  including  house- 
hold as  well  as  shop  industries)  varied  from  eleven  in  Preble  County  to  twenty-five  in  Butler. 
Ibid.,  114. 


96  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

barter  at  home  be  substituted  for  expensive  and  hazardous  com- 
mercial operations ;  and  the  immigrating  manufacturers  with  their 
increase  become  an  addition  to  the  population."  ^^ 

As  early  as  1810  Governor  Huntington  of  Ohio  had  declared 
in  his  message :"....  The  heavy  charges  attending  the  introduction 
of  foreign  manufactures,  so  far  into  the  interior,  all  point  out  the  ex- 
pediency of  making  every  public,  as  well  as  private,  exertion,  to 
establish,  on  a  permanent  foundation,  such  manufactures,  at  least, 

as  are  of  first  necessity Manufactures  would  aiford  a  market 

for  the  productions  of  our  soil,  and  enable  us  to  do  without  the  mer- 
chandise of  other  countries "  ^^   "The  enormous  price  which 

everything  of  foreign  growth  or  manufacture  bears  at  the  present 
day  must  convince  us  that  we  cannot  too  soon  commence  our  inde- 
pendence of  other  nations  by  growing  and  manufacturing  for  our- 
selves," wrote  a  newspaper  contributor  in  1814.*'^  "If  for  the  solid 
products  and  labor  of  the  country  exported,  and  far  beyond  it,  ar- 
ticles of  luxury  and  superfluity  are  introduced  into  the  country,  the 

necessary  tendency  is,  to  impoverish  and  weaken  it What  we 

do  manufacture  is  better  generally  than  that  which  we  import .... 
and  when  we  consider  further  that  whatever  is  manufactured 
among  ourselves  is  free  of  the  expense  of  duty  and  transportation, 
it  is  our  duty  ....  to  examine  our  own  resources  and  bring  them 
into  action  and  use."  ^^  So  wrote  the  Governor  of  Ohio  in  1817. 
He  admits,  indeed,  that  "if  in  our  intercourse  with  other  nations, 
we  could  on  our  part  give  in  exchange  such  articles  as  we  can  grow 
or  manufacture  most  advantageously,  for  such  others  as  our  own 
comfort  and  circumstances  may  require,  such  a  course  of  change 
would  operate  beneficially."  But  he  held  that  such  is  not  the  sit- 
uation of  the  West,  and  concluded  that  "as  far  as  circumstances  will 
permit,  every  community  should  rely  on  its  own  resources."  The 
evil  of  buying  more  than  the  exports  from  the  western  country  paid 
for,  hinted  at  in  this  message,  involved  the  additional  evil  of  pay- 
ment of  trade  balances  in  specie,  much  to  the  embarrassment  of  the 
circulation  in  the  West.  To  these  economic  motives  favoring  west- 
ern manufactures  were  joined  at  the  close  of  the  war  patriotic  con- 
siderations derived  from  the  British  origin  of  most  of  the  imported 


^^  Ibid.,  770,  quoting  Drake,  Natural  and  Statistical  View  of  Cincinnati,   3. 

»»  Printed  in  Supporter,  Dec.  22,  1810. 

*°  Western  Spy,  cited  by  Goodwin,  "Rise  of  Manufactures."     (Issue  of  January  29.) 

*i  Gov.  Worthington.    Message  printed  in  Supporter,  Dec.   9,   1817. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  97 

goods.  "How  shall  we  find  a  remedy  for  this  ruinous  British 
trade,  which  ....  drains  us  of  our  specie,"  became  the  cry,  and 
the  Cincinnati  writer  who  voiced  it  was  ready  with  the  answer: 
"We  can  manufacture  almost  every  article  of  British  manufacture 

that  we  drag  over  the  mountains  at  such  enormous  expense 

Put  in  operation  in  Cincinnati  manufactures  for  woolen  cloth,  for 
cotton  cloth,  for  ....  every  article  which  ....  can  be  manufac- 
tured in  Cincinnati.  Let  the  money  which  we  send  over  the  moun- 
tains be  paid  the  manufacturers  in  Cincinnati."  ^^ 

These  expressions  of  opinion  are  evidence  of  the  desire  for  an 
economy  adjusted  to  the  stage  of  development  which  had  been 
reached  by  the  provincial  West.  The  inconvenience  of  intercourse 
with  the  East  created  a  desire  for  self -sufficiency,  and  local  manu- 
factures lessened  the  hardships  of  semi-isolation.  The  banking 
and  currency  system  conformed  to  the  provincial  situation.  In 
the  West  as  elsewhere  numerous  state  banks  sprang  up  after  the 
refusal  of  Congress  to  recharter  the  United  States  Bank,  in  1811, 
and  in  view  of  the  scarcity  of  specie,  the  nearest  approach  to  a 
sound  currency  possible  was  the  issues  of  these  banks,  on  the  basis 
of  specie  reserves.  Lax  as  were  the  current  laws  regulating  bank- 
ing operations,  there  was  a  general  appreciation  of  the  importance 
of  maintaining  a  sufficient  supply  of  specie  to  support  the  paper 
of  the  banks,  and  bankers  who  endeavored  to  conduct  their  business 
in  good  faith  did  not  venture  to  issue  paper  in  excess  of  two  or 
three  times  the  amount  of  specie  held  in  reserve.  The  states  usual- 
ly imposed  some  such  restrictions  upon  the  banking  corporations 
holding  charters,*^  but  institutions  of  various  descriptions  circu- 
lated notes  without  authority  of  government,  and  in  practice  the 
test  of  the  soundness  of  the  issuing  concern  was  payment  of  its 
notes  in  specie  on  demand.^*  Such  a  currency  served  fairly  well, 
on  the  whole,  in  transactions  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  issuing 
banks,  but  the  inconvenience  and  cost  of  exchange  in  distant  trade 
relations  added  to  the  other  impediments  in  the  way  of  such  trade, 
and  to  the  reasons  for  confining  trade  within  the  western  country. 


*^  Goodwin,  "Rise  of  Manufactures,"   769. 

*'  E.  g.,  the  Ohio  law  of  1816  limited  debts,  including  notes,  above  deposits,  to  three 
times  the  paid-in  capital  stock,  of  which  one-half  at  least  must  be  specie. 

**  Cf.  Huntington,  C.  C,  A  History  of  Banking  and  Currency  in  Ohio  before  the  Civil 
War,  37,  65-66.  Near  the  end  of  the  war,  specie  payments  were  suspended  by  the  western 
banks,  but  normal  conditions,  according  to  contemporary  standards,  were  restored  soon  after 
the  war  closed  and  lasted  for  a  short  time.    Ibid.,  52,  55. 


98  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

The  provincialism  of  the  West  was  intensified,  too,  by  the  fact 
that  the  governments  of  the  new  states  were  often  interested  in 
the  operations  of  the  chartered  banks  and  shared  in  their  profits 
under  various  plans.*^ 

The  attacks  of  western  states  on  the  branches  of  the  Second 
United  States  Bank  resulted  from  this  provincial  attitude.  The 
branches  were  accorded  a  lukewarm  welcome  at  first,  because  it 
was  believed  that  they  would  bring  into  the  country  large  sums 
in  specie  to  provide  the  basis  of  their  note  issues.  It  was  soon 
rumored,  however,  that  the  capital  of  the  branches  consisted  chiefly 
of  the  notes  of  local  banks,  and  that  the  specie  for  their  operations 
was  obtained  by  presenting  these  notes  for  redemption.  The  con- 
tinual presentation  of  local  bank  notes  for  payment  in  specie  and 
the  remittance  of  it  eastward  in  settlement  of  trade  accounts  was 
taken  as  proof  that  the  Bank  and  its  branches  was  a  mechanism  for 
draining  the  interior  states  of  their  specie;  the  contraction  of  the 
local  bank  circulation  made  necessary  by  the  specie  drain  made  it 
more  difficult  to  obtain  accommodations  and  was  believed  to  have 
an  adverse  effect  upon  prices  and  trade  conditions  in  general ;  and 
the  lack  of  any  profit  in  or  control  over  the  operations  of  the 
branches  by  the  state  governments  aroused  a  hostility  which  was 
well-nigh  universal,  and  led  to  the  attempts  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky 
to  tax.**'  Contemporary  criticisms  of  the  Bank  remind  us  that  the 
Ohio  Valley  bore  a  relation  to  the  seaboard  in  financial  matters  in 
1818-1820  similar  to  that  held  by  the  "back  settlements"  in  the 
eighteenth  century.*'  From  this  time  can  be  traced,  too,  the  be- 
ginnings of  a  "hard  money"  sentiment  in  the  Ohio  Valley  which 
was  to  be  a  factor  in  the  history  of  Jacksonian  Democracy  in  the 
thirties.*^  Early  in  the  twenties  the  West  began  to  realize  that 
the  bank  was  not  the  cause  of  the  drainage  of  specie  to  the  east- 
ward, and  to  attribute  it  to  the  unfavorable  course  of  trade.    With 


*^  The  common  rate  of  profit  varied  from  7  to  9  per  cent.,  while  states  could  borrow 
at  5  and  6.  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  at  one  time  or  other  sold  bonds  and 
invested  the  proceeds  in  bank  stock.  The  Ohio  legislature,  by  an  act  of  1816,  offered  to  extend 
the  charters  of  those  banks  which  would  transfer  to  the  account  of  the  state  one  share  in 
twenty-five  of  their  stock.  Callender,  "Early  Transportation  and  Banking  Enterprises,"  161  ; 
Huntington,   History  of  Banking,  45. 

'"  Chillicothe,  where  one  of  the  branches  was  located,  was  a  storm  center  in  the 
period  of  contest,  and  the  story  of  the  war  on  the  bank  can  be  followed  to  advantage  in  the 
columns  of  the  local  papers,  such  as  the  Supporter,  beginning  about  1818.  Of  especial  inter- 
est are  the  essays  of  "X.  Y.,"  running  through  the  summer  of  that  year.  The  question  was 
an  issue  in  state  politics  that  year  and  the  next. 

*"  Cf.  communication  of  "Logan,"  in  Supporter,  Sept.   16,  1818. 

*"  Cf.    communications  of   "A   Countryman,"   in   Supporter,    July  29   and   Sept.   2,    1818. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  99 

this  the  opposition  to  the  Bank  ceased,^^  leaving,  however,  an  after- 
math of  ill-will  that  proved  injurious  to  Clay  in  the  campaign  of 
1824,  and  might  have  warned  him  against  making  re-charter  the 
issue  in  the  election  of  1832.'^^ 

But  the  hope  of  western  self-sufRciency  could  not  be  made  a 
reality.  During  the  handicraft  stage  the  West  did,  indeed,  to  a 
large  extent  import  artisans  instead  of  goods,  supplying  the  equip- 
ment for  its  primitive  industries  by  the  labor  of  immigrant  smiths, 
wheelwrights,  carpenters,  and  tanners.'^^  But  the  abundance  of 
cheap  land  was  the  lure  which  drew  the  great  majority  of  the  new- 
comers, and  despite  the  notable  growth  of  manufacturing  activity 
it  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  expansion  of  agriculture.^^  Although 
the  needs  of  newcomers  before  their  own  lands  became  productive 
added  measurably  at  times  of  large  immigration  to  the  demand  for 
the  agricultural  surplus,  at  no  time  did  the  surplus  find  the  local 
market  sufficient,  and  the  desire  for  an  adequate  market  made  war 
upon  the  ideal  of  self-sufficiency.  In  spite  of  the  obstacle  of  dis- 
tance, almost  from  the  beginning  the  surplus  flour,  grain,  tobacco, 
and  meat  of  Kentucky  sought  an  outlet  by  way  of  the  Mississippi 
to  the  West  Indies  and  Europe,  and  from  an  early  date  grain  found 
a  way  out  also  in  the  form  of  the  easily  transported  whiskey.  Cattle 
and  hogs,  too,  could  be  driven  across  the  mountains,  and  this  phase 
of  western  commerce  became  of  great  volume. ^^  Up  the  river 
came  specie  in  payment  for  these  exports,  and  notwithstanding  the 
heavy  cost  of  transportation,  over  the  rough  mountain  roads  lum- 


^9  "You    never   would    hear   a    word    about    the    mismanagement    of   the    Bank    of    the    U. 

States,    if   it   had   not   been    for   the   exportation   of   specie The    real   pure,    and   uncon- 

taminated   source   of   the   ruin   that   is   involving   our   country,   is   the   permission   by   government 

of   a    trade   that   impoverishes    the   country,   and    a   total   neglect   of   manufactures "     "A 

Friend  to  His  Country,"  in  National  Intelligencer,  quoted  by  Supporter,  April  7,  1819.  Cf. 
quotations  from  Pittsburg  Gazette,  in  issues  of  December  9,  1818,  and  April  14,  1819.  Gov- 
ernor Brown,  in  his  message  of  1820,  informed  the  legislature  of  Ohio  that  "money,  rather 
than  secui-ity,  will  probably  continue  to  be  required  in  negotiations,  till  the  payment  [of  debts 
due  to  the  eastward]  shall  be  nearly  completed."  Then  credit  will  revive  and  hoarded  coin  be 
placed  in  circulation.    Supporter,  Dec.  14,  1820. 

50  See  below,  135. 

^1  By  1799,  Cincinnati  newspapers  carried  the  cards  of  blacksmiths,  millers,  saddlers, 
hatters,  dyers,  tanners,  bakers,  potters,  gunsmiths,  and  cabinet-makers.  Goodwin,  "Rise  of 
Manufactures,"  761. 

52  "The  attraction  of  the  laboring  class  to  the  vacant  territory  ....  is  the  great  ob- 
stacle to  the  spontaneous  establishment  of  manufactures,  and  will  be  overcome  with  most 
difficulty  wherever  land  is  cheapest,  and  the  ownership  of  it  most  attainable."  Madison  to 
Clay.  April  24,   1824.     Works  of  Clay   (Federal  edition),  IV,  91. 

^*  Cattle  were  driven  overland  from  Ohio  to  Baltimore  as  early  as  1804.  Gephart,  Trans- 
portation  and  Industrial  Development,  85.  By  1810,  40,000  hogs  were  driven  annually  from  the 
state  to  the  east.  Ibid.,  103,  quoting  Kilbourne's  Ohio  Gazetteer  for  ISIS.  Cf.  Pitkin,  Sta- 
tistical View,  584  et  aeq. 


100  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

bering  wagons  carried  many  imports  to  fill  the  debit  side  of  the  trade 
account.  But  the  disadvantage  under  which  the  West  carried  on  all 
trade  with  distant  parts  even  of  the  United  States  may  be  seen 
from  the  cost  of  freight.  To  eastern  Ohio  the  rates  overland  from 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  and  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  from 
New  Orleans,  were  about  the  same,  averaging  nearly  $7  per  hun- 
dred weight.^*  Such  rates  forbade  the  transportation  of  bulky  ar- 
ticles by  land  to  the  cities  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  Down  river 
freights  were  much  lower,  and  yet  at  times  prohibitive  in  view  of 
prices  obtainable  for  produce  in  the  New  Orleans  market.^^  The 
obstacles  to  river  navigation  resulted  in  an  alternate  dearth  and 
glut  of  the  market,  attended  by  great  fluctuations  in  prices  and 
misleading  quotations.  The  bulk  of  the  exports  of  the  upper  valley 
regularly  arrived  at  about  the  same  time,  with  the  spring  rise  of 
the  water,  and  often  so  depressed  the  market  as  to  occasion  loss  to 
the  shippers. ^*^  Even  these  precarious  trade  opportunities  were 
accessible  only  to  those  whose  farms  lay  near  navigable  streams, 
for  the  cost  of  carrying  grain  over  unimproved  country  roads  con- 
sumed its  value  in  a  short  haul.^^ 

The  cost  of  transportation  reduced  the  price  of  all  western  ex- 
ports and  increased  that  of  all  imports.  The  disadvantage  of  the 
West  in  such  exchange  was  reduced  by  contemporaries  to  the  esti- 
mate that  it  required  four  bushels  of  corn  to  buy  at  Cincinnati 
what  one  bushel  would  command  at  Philadelphia.^^ 

Yet  the  abundance  of  the  fruits  of  the  soil  seemed  to  mean 
the  power  to  command  the  wealth  of  the  world  if  the  natural  im- 


^*  The  following  are  typical  rates,  compiled  by  recent  secondary  writers : 

Philadelphia  and   Baltimore  to   Lexington,   1802,   $7  to   $8. 

New  Orleans  to  Zanesville,  1818,  $6.50. 

New  Orleans  to  Pittsburg,  1786-1815,  $6.75. 

New  Orleans  to  Shawneetown,  1817,  $4.50. 

Shawneetown  to  Pittsburg,  $3.50. 

New  Orleans  to  Louisville,  1818,  $6.25. 

Philadelphia  to  Cincinnati,  average  $7  to  $8. 

^^  Lippincott,  "Pioneer  Industry,"  gives  the  rate  from  Shawneetown  to  New  Orleans  in 
1817-1818  as  $1.00  per  cwt.  In  1819  the  rate  of  25  cents  per  bushel  on  corn  from  Vincennea 
to  New  Orleans  absorbed  all  profit. 

68  The  Supporter,  issue  of  Jan.  13,  1819,  quotes  from  a  letter  written  at  New  Orleans: 
"Flour  very  scarce  and  is  worth  15  and  20  dollars  per  barrel  .  .  .  ."  The  following  May  flour 
was  worth  in  the  New  Orleans  market  $5  to  $5.50  per  barrel.    Ihid.,  June  16,  1819. 

"■^  "About  the  year  1805,  the  usual  pi-ice  of  carriage  over  the  country  roads  was  stated 
to  have  been  50  cents  for  100  pounds  for  every  twenty  miles.  At  this  rate  corn,  which  before 
1835  rarely  sold  for  as  much  as  35  cents  per  bushel,  would  not  stand  the  expense  of  moving 
twenty-five  miles,  even  tho'  it  had  been  produced  without  cost.  On  the  same  basis,  the  area 
in  which  wheat  could  be  sold  at  a  profit  to  the  farmer  was  limited  to  a  radius  of  from  fifty  to 
seventy-five  miles."    Lippincott,   "Pioneer  Industry." 

6*  Goodwin,  "Rise  of  Manufactures,"  768. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  101 

pediments  to  commerce  could  but  be  overcome.  The  one  town  of 
Circleville,  located  near  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Scioto,  sent 
down  the  river  in  the  year  1822  exports  worth  approximately  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  according  to  local  opinion,  the  com- 
munity could  have  supplied  ten  times  the  amount  with  proper  facil- 
ities for  transportation.^^  Eleven  years  earlier  the  neighboring 
town  of  Chillicothe  sent  off  fifty  loaded  boats  in  the  month  of  Feb- 
ruary, occasioning  the  declaration  that  "If  the  rivers  were  im- 
proved so  that  a  market  could  be  reached  the  supply  of  corn,  wheat, 
cattle,  hogs,  and  hemp  which  could  be  furnished  by  the  region 
would  be  enormous.''^" 

The  conditions  in  these  two  towns  are  typical  of  those  which 
prevailed  for  many  years  in  every  surplus-producing  area  of  the 
maturer  West.  The  insufficient  local  market  did  not  supply  an 
adequate  incentive  to  stimulate  the  farmer  to  the  maximum  pro- 
ductive effort,  and  indolence  as  well  as  poverty  resulted.  "Not- 
withstanding the  great  fertility  of  our  soil,"  wrote  Governor  Worth- 
ington  of  Ohio  in  his  message  of  1816,  "if  the  surplus  produced 
from  it,  beyond  our  own  consumption,  does  not  command  a  price 
sufficient  to  reward  the  husbandman,  the  spring  to  industry  is  in 
a  great  measure  destroyed."  " 

The  obvious  remedy  seemed  to  be  the  improvement  of  trans- 
portation facilities  in  order  that  western  produce  might  cheaply 
reach  the  distant  market.  "If  we  would  raise  the  character  of  our 
state  by  increasing  industry,  and  our  resources,  it  seems  neces- 
sary to  improve  the  internal  communications ;  and  to  open  a  cheaper 
way  to  market  for  the  surplus  produce  of  a  large  portion  of  our 


5*  Gephart,  Transportation  and  Industrial  Development,  103,  quoting  Olive  Branch, 
March  18,  1822. 

«o/6id.,  101. 

81  Printed  in  Supporter,  Dec.  10,  1816.  Cf.  speech  of  P.  B.  Porter  in  Congress,  1810 : 
"The  great  evil,  and  it  is  a  serious  one  indeed,  under  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  western 
country  labor,  arises  from  the  want  of  a  market.  There  is  no  place  where  the  great  staple  arti- 
cles for  the  use  of  civilized  life  can  be  produced  in  greater  abundance  or  with  greater  ease, 
and  yet  as  respects  most  of  the  luxuries  and  many  of  the  conveniences  of  life  the  people  are 
poor.  They  have  no  vent  for  their  produce  at  home,  and,  being  all  agriculturists,  they  produce 
alike  the  same  article  with  the  same  facility  ;  and  such  is  the  present  difficulty  and  expense  of 
transporting  their  produce  to  an  Atlantic  port  that  little  benefit  is  realized  from  that  quar- 
ter. The  single  circumstance  of  want  of  a  market  is  already  beginning  to  produce  the  most 
disastrous  effect,  not  only  on  the  industry,  but  on  the  morals  of  the  inhabitants.  Such  is  the 
fertility  of  their  land  that  one-half  their  time  spent  in  labor  is  sufficient  to  produce  every 
article  which  their  farms  are  capable  'of  yielding,  in  sufficient  quantities  for  their  own  con- 
sumption, and  there  is  nothing  to  incite  them  to  produce  more.  They  are,  therefore,  naturally 
led  to  spend  the  other  part  of  their  time  in  idleness  and  dissipation."  Annals,  Eleventh  Cong., 
1  and  2  sess.,  1385  et  seq.  Similar  views  are  to  be  found  in  western  newspapers.  See,  e.  g., 
"Julius"  to  "Edwin,"  in  Supporter,  May  18,  1811. 


102  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

fertile  country,"  declared  Governor  Brown,  Worthington's  suc- 
cessor, in  1818.«2 

For  the  next  few  years  it  is  doubtful  if  any  single  policy  so 
united  sentiment  in  the  Ohio  Valley  as  the  policy  of  internal  im- 
provements. It  is  the  constant  theme  of  editors,  newspaper  writ- 
ers, legislators,  and  governors,  who  discuss  it  in  all  phases,  local, 
state,  and  national.  The  coming  together  of  the  diverse  elements 
of  the  Ohio  population  in  opinion  concerning  the  interests  of  the 
western  country  is  one  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  real  fusion  of 
Federalists  and  Republicans.'^^  In  the  late  twenties  the  National 
Republicans  and  Democrats  of  Indiana  were  still  in  accord  on  the 
question  of  internal  improvements  within  the  state.*^* 

The  western  population  contemplated  the  benefits  to  be  de- 
rived from  access  to  the  world's  markets  with  an  enthusiasm  which 
was  for  some  time  unchecked  by  any  doubt  of  the  power  and  readi- 
ness of  those  markets  to  absorb  all  the  produce  it  could  offer.  The 
steamboat  promised  relief  from  the  high  freight  charges  on  im- 
ports brought  by  wagon,  and  its  advent  was  hailed  with  delight. 
"The  improvement  of  our  barges  and  steamboats  insure  [sic]  with- 
in two  years  the  total  supply  by  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  Rivers  of 
many  articles  which  are  now  wagoned  from  Baltimore  and  Phila- 
delphia, and  our  exports  will  then  be  commensurate  with  our  im- 
ports. Our  flour,  pork,  tobacco  and  whiskey  will  return  in  calicoes, 
hardware,  coffee,  cotton,  sugar,  bartered  for  at  New  Orleans. 
There  was  never  such  a  prospect  for  improvement  and  trade  at  one 
time  on  any  portion  of  the  globe  as  that  which  is  now  exhibited  to 
western  America."  '^'  These  great  expectations  were  doomed  to 
suffer  a  measure  of  disappointment.  The  steamboat  did,  indeed, 
reduce  the  time  required  to  bring  freight  from  New  Orleans  to 
Louisville  from  about  three  months  to  a  week  or  eight  days,  with 
a  corresponding  lowering  of  charges,*'''  but  the  full  realization  of 
its  benefits  was  postponed  for  a  time  by  the  contests  over  the  mo- 


«2  Supporter,  Dec.  23,   1818.      ' 

*^  See  above,  61-62. 

'■'  Esarey,  History  of  Indiana,  304.  Cf.  interest  of  the  seaboard  in  improving  means  of 
communication  with  the  interior  for  the  sake  of  its  trade.  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Balti- 
more became  rivals  in  the  race  for  the  commerce  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  Even  Virginia  had  hopes 
of  competing  with  the  northern  states  by  connecting  the  James  and  Kanawha  rivers.  An 
ardent  advocate  of  this  project  was  Thomas  Ritchie,  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer.  Ambler, 
Ritchie,  64-65. 

^^  Gephart,  Transportation  and  Industrial  Development,  79,  quoting  Brownsville  Tele- 
graph, Aug.  14,  1815. 

*"  Lippincott,  "Pioneer  Industry,"  quoting  Edwardsville  Spectator  of  June  5,  1819,  and 
March  22,  1826. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  103 

nopoly  claimed  by  the  inventors,  and  the  abandonment  of  their  claim 
about  1818,  although  the  number  of  steamers  plying  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  increased  for  a  year  or  two,  was  followed  by  hard  times 
which  prevented  rapid  expansion  of  the  river  trade/^' 

The  project  of  a  canal  connecting  the  lakes  and  the  Hudson 
likewise  aroused  great  interest  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  but  especially 
in  the  northern  half  of  Ohio.  In  1812  the  New  York  legislature  ap- 
pealed to  Ohio  and  other  western  states  for  aid,''*  and  in  1816  re- 
newed the  invitation  to  Ohio  by  means  of  a  letter  from  DeWitt 
Clinton  to  Governor  Worthington,  which  the  latter  transmitted  to 
the  Legislature  with  the  recommendation  that  investigation  be 
made  as  to  the  practicability  and  expense  of  the  scheme.  If  the 
results  of  the  investigation  were  satisfactory,  he  thought  "it  will 
become  the  duty  of  the  people  of  Ohio  to  give  all  the  aid  in  their 
power  towards  effecting  an  object  in  which  they  are  so  deeply  in- 
terested." ^^  Although  Ohio  did  not  join  in  the  building  of  the  Erie 
canal,  the  prospect  of  the  completion  of  the  New  York  waterway 
awakened  interest  in  the  construction  of  a  connecting  system  be- 
tween Lake  Erie  and  the  Ohio  River,  and  started  an  agitation  which 
culminated  in  the  undertaking  of  a  state  system  in  the  late  twen- 
ties.^° 

Thus,  as  in  the  case  of  the  steamboat,  realization  of  benefit 
was  postponed  for  some  time,  but  meantime  interest  was  main- 
tained by  the  newspapers  and  by  reports  of  the  canal  commissioners 


*'  Gephart,   Transportation  and  Industrial  Development,  74,  81. 

«8  Ibid.,  110-111  ;  Phelan,  Tennessee,  276  et  seq. 

8»  Supporter,  Dec.   17,   1816. 

"0  McClelland  and  Huntington,  History  of  the  Ohio  Canals.  Enthusiasm  for  an  Ohio 
system  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  northern  portion  of  Ohio,  but  extended  to  the  river 
towns.  The  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser  for  July  24,  1820,  has  a  two-column  editorial  on 
the  progress  of  the  Erie  work,  the  certainty  of  success,  the  benefits  to  result,  the  effects  on 
Ohio,  and  the  desirability  of  canals  connecting  the  lake  and  river.  The  article  is  noteworthy 
because  of  the  recognition  that  economic  unity  of  Ohio  and  western  New  York  would  i-esult. 
Western  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  have  much  in  common  with  the  Ohio  Valley 
throughout  the  period.  In  the  issue  of  August  8  is  another  editorial  on  the  same  lines,  in 
which  occur  the  following  words :  "Should  Ohio  ....  imitate  [New  York]  ....  we  should 
be  able  to  send  the  immense  surplus  produce  from  nearly  every  part  of  our  rich  and  fertile 
territory  to  the  city  of  New- York  at  less  expense  than  we  can  now  transport  it  to  New- 
Orleans,  and  be  able  to  return  with  groceries  and  other  heavy  articles  of  common  necessity 
at  one-third  of  the  expense  we  are  now  compelled  to  pay  for  the  transportation  of  the  same 
up  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers  .  .  .  ." 

Soon  after  this  an  article  appeared  in  the  Louisville  Public  Advertiser,  inspired  by  canal 
editorials  in  the  Inquisitor,  picturing  in  glowing  terms  the  benefits  Ohio  will  derive  from  a 
canal  across  the  state.  "In  a  few  short  years  we  calculate  on  seeing  the  extensive  forests  and 
plains  between  the  town  of  Delaware  and  the  mouth  of  Sandusky,  abounding  with  well  cul- 
tivated farms."  "Instead  of  being  confined  in  their  trade  to  a  single  port,  they  will  be  able  to 
select  a  market."    Quoted  by  Inquisitor,  Aug.  22,  1820. 


104  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

setting  forth  the  advantages  expected.  In  the  report  for  1822,  for 
example,  it  was  estimated  that  the  cost  of  shipping  flour  by  canal 
to  New  York  City  would  be  $1.70  per  barrel,  whereas  the  rate  to 
the  New  Orleans  market  was  $4.50.  With  flour  worth  $3.50  at  Cin- 
cinnati and  $8  at  New  York,  it  was  believed  that  the  producer  would 
profit  by  a  large  part  of  the  reduction  in  cost  of  transportation,  and 
that  the  output  of  Ohio  fields  would  be  increased  many  fold.  Im- 
ports, too,  for  the  entire  Ohio  Valley,  it  was  thought,  would  come 
chiefly  from  New  York  by  way  of  the  canals.^^  But  the  delay  in 
the  construction  of  canals  thus  left  central  Ohio  in  the  mid-twenties 
still  without  means  of  transporting  its  surplus  to  market,  save  in 
the  form  of  animals  on  the  hoof.  The  lack  of  means  of  communi- 
cation left  the  produce  of  abundant  harvests  to  rot  in  the  fields, 
while  the  farmers  lacked  money  sufficient  to  pay  taxes,^^ 

This  period  of  hope  deferred  was  a  period  of  conflicting  as- 
pirations for  the  West.  While  the  desire  for  internal  improve- 
ments to  promote  the  marketing  of  the  surplus  of  the  interior  was  a 
virtual  confession  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  home  market,  yet  the 
continued  lack  of  easy  means  of  transportation  and  the  high  price 
of  imported  articles  maintained  the  interest  in  local  manufactures. 
In  truth  the  West  was  held  back  in  the  provincial  stage  of  her  de- 
velopment by  actual  conditions,  while  aspiring  to  improvements 
which  would  facilitate  intercourse  with  other  sections  of  the  coun- 
try and  inaugurate  the  national  economy. ^^     It  was  a  period,  more- 


"1  Gephart,  Transportation  and  Industrial  Development,  113-114,  quoting  Journal  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  1822.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Ohio  canals  proved  to  be  feeders  for 
both  the  Erie  canal  and  the  Ohio-Mississippi  route,  and  while  the  east-bound  traffic  grew 
with  relative  rapidity,  it  was  not  until  the  railways  united  the  Northwest  and  the  coast  in  the 
fifties  that  the  river  trade  felt  severely  the  competition  of  the  artificial  routes.  Cf.  ibid.,  118-119. 
The  interest  which  the  Erie  canal  excited  in  the  West  was  felt  as  far  South  as  Tennessee. 
The  request  of  New  York  that  the  legislature  instruct  the  representatives  of  the  state  in  Con- 
gress to  support  measures  favorable  to  the  Erie  project  turned  attention  in  the  direction  of 
congressional  action  in  the  Southwest.    Phelan,  History  of  Tennessee,  276  et  seq. 

''^  Callender,    "Early   Transportation   and   Banking    Enterprises,"    123. 

"•^  Extreme  emphasis  was  sometimes  placed  on  the  ideal  of  national  self-sufficiency. 
"  .  .  .  .  From  the  vast  extent  of  the  dominion  of  the  United  States,  the  variety  of  climate,  soil 
and  produce,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but   all  the   necessaries  of   life   and  many   of  the  luxuries 

may  be  procured   without   the   assistance   of  any   other   counti-y  under   heaven We   think 

[commerce]  ....  should  be  [confined]  to  our  own  country."  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser, 
Feb.  12,  1823.  "So  long  as  Europe  shall  continue  in  the  present  state  of  slavery  and  deg- 
radation, there  is  more  danger  of  intercourse  with  its  nations  having  a  demoralizing  [than 
good]  effect  upon  our  citizens.  When  these  U.  States  may  be  ripe  for  cutting  off  all  inter- 
course with  foreign  nations  for  commercial  purposes,  we  may  willingly  and  readily  resign 
all  pretensions  to  their  improvements  in  arts,  sciences  and  literature — and  be  perfectly  con- 
tented with  such  improvements  as  we  are  ourselves  capable  of  making  in  those  matters. 

"Let  us  endeavor  to  turn  our  territory  into  a  world  for  our  own  use.  Let  us  make 
it   subservient   to  commercial   purposes,   by  promoting    inland   navigation,    constructing  bridges, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  105 

over,  during  which  the  views  of  the  West  were  rapidly  being  shaped 
by  experience  into  harmony  with  the  new  nationalism.  We  have 
seen  how  Governor  Worthington,  though  a  Republican  of  Virginia 
stock,  along  with  other  leaders  of  western  thought,  repudiated  the 
laissez  faire  principles  of  Jefferson,  and  advocated  government 
care  for  manufactures.'*  The  problem  of  internal  improvements 
exerted  a  similar  influence.  In  response  to  the  appeal  of  New  York 
in  1812,  the  Ohio  legislature  passed  a  resolution  in  favor  of  con- 
struction of  the  Erie  canal  by  the  federal  government,  as  a  means 
of  "rendering  the  produce  of  our  country  more  valuable,  the  price 
of  foreign  commodities  cheaper,"  and  the  bonds  of  the  union 
firmer."^  The  delay  in  inaugurating  the  work  on  the  Ohio  canal 
system  was  due  in  part  to  the  hesitation  to  entrust  a  task  so  closely 
involving  the  public  welfare  to  a  private  company.^"  Besides,  it 
was  doubtful  whether  a  private  corporation  would  be  able  to  finance 
so  vast  an  undertaking.  This  form  of  industrial  organization, 
while  well  known,  had  hitherto  been  employed  chiefly  in  banking, 
and  the  work  of  internal  improvements  required  a  far  greater  cap- 
ital than  had  yet  been  brought  together  in  any  industry  in  this 
country.  Only  public  securities  could  command  the  confidence  of 
the  owners  of  loanable  capital,  at  home  and  abroad,  for  such  sums.^^ 
For  these  reasons  the  preponderance  of  opinion  favored  the  con- 


and  making  roads  by  which  internal  intercourse  may  be  facilitated."  Ibid.,  Feb.  15,  1823. 
The  antagonism  between  the  western  farmer  and  the  merchant  engaged  in  European  com- 
merce is  emphasized  still  more  in  a  third  article  in  this  series,  in  issue  of  Feb.  22,   1823. 

''*  See  above,  96  ;  cf.  Gov.  Huntington's  views,  ibid.    Also  see  below,   107. 

''^  Gephart,   Transportation  and  Industrial  Development,   110-111. 

■^^  Bills  for  the  incorporation  of  a  canal  company  were  considered  by  both  houses  in 
1818.  Commenting  on  the  senate  bill  a  Columbus  newspaper  correspondent  remarks:  "There 
is  no  man  who  has  reflected  on  the  incalculable  advantage  that  would  result  to  this,  and  the 
adjoining  states,  by  a  canal  uniting  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  and  the  river  Ohio,  but  must 
ardently  wish  for  the  accomplishment  of  so  great  and  beneficial  a  work — but  whether  the  plan 
of  a  private  company,  with  power,  exclusively,  to  navigate  the  canal,  when  made,  be  expedient, 
is,  to  say  the  least,  extremely  doubtful. — The  plan  of  a  canal  ....  forms  an  important  link, 
to  my  view,  in  the  chain  of  our  future  prosperity,  and  should  be  entered  upon  with  caution." 
Supporter,  Dec.  10,  1818. 

The  impolicy  of  private  construction  is  urged  later  in  the  report  of  the  state  canal 
commissioners:  "Nothing  can  be  more  interesting  to  the  whole  community  than  the  great  navi- 
gable highways  through  the  State  from  the  lakes  to  the  Ohio  River It  does  not  con- 
sist with  the  dignity,  the  interest,  or  the  convenience  of  the  State  that  a  private  company 
....  should  have  the  management  and  control  of  them.  The  evils  of  such  management  can- 
not be  fully  foreseen,  and  therefore  cannot  be  fully  provided  against A  private  com- 
pany will  look  only  to  the  best  means  for  increasing  their  profits.  The  public  convenience 
will  be  regarded  only  as  it  is  subservient  to  their  emolument."  Report  of  1825,  quoted  by  Cal- 
lender,  "Early  Transportation  and  Banking  Enterprises,"  155. 

"  Ibid..  131-152. 


106  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

struction  of  the  canals  by  the  stated*  But  even  the  state,  in  those 
days  of  partially  developed  resources,  hesitated  to  incur  the  neces- 
sary financial  obligations  until  it  felt  confident  of  federal  aid  in 
the  form  of  land  grants." 

A  similar  lesson  was  taught  by  the  efforts  to  improve  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Ohio  by  a  canal  at  the  rapids  near  Louisville,  where 
transshipment  of  cargoes  was  necessary  except  in  the  case  of  boats 
of  light  draft  or  during  high  water.  The  delay  and  expense  at  this 
point  early  aroused  the  interest  of  the  adjacent  population  in  canal 
projects.  State  jealousies,  however,  prevented  the  co-operation 
which  might  have  brought  success.  About  1820  rival  companies 
were  incorporated  by  the  legislatures  of  Indiana  and  Kentucky, 
for  the  construction  of  canals  on  opposite  sides  of  the  river.  The  in- 
terest of  Ohio  was  no  less  than  that  of  either  of  these  states,  but  be- 
ing indirect  in  that  the  river  did  not  touch  her  territory  at  the  rap- 
ids, she  was  at  a  loss  what  course  to  pursue,  inclining  to  the  view 
that  the  great  cost  of  the  undertaking  called  for  federal  action.^" 


''^  C}.  the  opinion  of  an  "Ohio  Citizen,"  in  Supporter  for  Dec.  30,  1824:  "Great  public 
works,  whether  the  fruit  of  individual  or  of  national  enterprize,  have  hitherto  in  all  modern 
states,  been  the  result  of  the  accumulation  of  redundant  capital."  After  discussing  the  success 
of  New  York  in  building  the  Erie  canal  when  no  great  surplus  of  capital  existed  and  inter- 
est rates  were  high,  he  concludes  with  the  hope  that  Ohio  may  imitate  her  example.  "This  state, 
which  for  some  years  past,  has  made  such  noble  and  generous  exertions  in  the  same  way  has 
now  filled  the  whole  public  mind  with  the  most  ardent  hopes  that  an  undertaking  on  the  same 
colossal  scale,  and  of  the  same  permanent  utility,  will  be  accomplished  by  herself  .  .  .  ."  The 
Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser  for  Aug.  29,  reprinted  an  article  from  the  Netv  York  States- 
man on  the  prospect  of  an  Ohio  canal,  which  held  that  Ohio  was  abundantly  able  to  undertake 
the  work.  "She  has  people,  enterprise,  industry,  and  credit.  The  whole  work  would  be  within 
herself — not  a  cent  of  capital  carried  beyond  her  borders,  and  all  the  expenditures,  for  an 
undertaking  that  will  hereafter  render  her  rich,  flourishing,  and  powerful,  be  made  to  her 
own  citizens." 

■'^  McClelland  &  Huntington,  History  of  the  Ohio  Canals,  35. 

*"  Gephart,  Transportation  and  Industrial  Development,  107-110.  "H"  in  the  Cincinnati 
Inquisitor  Advertiser  for  Oct.  30,  1821,  urged  the  need  of  federal  activity  in  river  improve- 
ments in  these  words:  "The  immense  benefit  that  would  arise  to  the  nation  from  an  unob- 
structed navigation  of  these  two  immense  rivers  of  the  Western  country,  the  Ohio  and  Mis- 
sissippi, is  so  palpable  to  every  person  acquainted  with  the  geography  of  our  country  and  with 
the   state  of  the  population   west  of  the   Alleghany  mountain    [sic],   that   I  should   suppose   the 

subject    worthy   of   the   consideration    of   congress [The   West]    must   now    look   to   the 

enlightened  advocates  of  internal  improvements  in  the  national  legislature  for  assistance."  The 
demand  for  federal  action  is  coupled  with  a  statement  of  western  grievances  in  the  comment 
of  "Dion"  on  "The  Interests  of  the  West,"  in  the  Liberty  Hall  and  Cincinnati  Gazette  during 
the  summer  of  1819:  "Let  any  person  cast  his  eye  on  the  map  and  trace  the  line  formed  by 
the  Apalachicola,  and  the  Allegheny  [Mountains],  into  Pennsylvania,  and  thence  to  lake  Erie, 
and  he  will  see  at  once  what  proportions  of  country  pay  and  what  receive  the  national  revenue 
— On  the  one  side  are  cities,  harbors,  roads,  public  works  of  every  description,  and  an  old, 
well  cultivated  country ;  on  the  other,  an  immense  wilderness,  interspersed  with  a  few  infant, 
tho'  flourishing  towns,  but  generally  peopled  by  emigrants  yet  struggling  with  the  hardships  of 
first  settlements,  felling  the  forests  around  them,  building  their  rude  cabins,  toiling  indus- 
triously for  subsistence,  with  no  money  to  spare  even  for  the  comforts  of  domestic  life,  much 
less  for  those  public  improvements  so  important  to  the  prosperity  of  any  country.    From  every 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  107 

Thus  experience  exerted  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  views  of 
the  western  people.  Under  the  stress  of  poverty  and  the  need  of 
improved  communications  the  belief  in  the  sufficiency  of  private 
initiative,  which  Jefferson  had  made  a  part  of  the  creed  of  the  early 
Republicans,  gave  way  generally  to  a  demand  for  government  ac- 
tion, and  even  the  jealousy  for  state  rights  yielded  to  the  necessity 
of  federal  aid.*^ 

The  breakdown  of  the  ideal  of  western  self-sufficiency  and  the 
espousal  of  the  "American  System"  came  in  the  early  twenties  with 
a  larger  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  European  markets.  For 
several  years  previously,  however,  local  economic  thinkers  had  been 
perplexed  by  the  excess  of  imports  over  exports,  which  they  were 
inclined  to  attribute  to  the  speculative  tendencies  of  importing 
merchants  and  the  lack  of  proper  facilities  for  transporting  the 
produce  of  the  West.  Internal  improvements  and  greater  encour- 
agement of  exportation  they  thought  to  be  the  remedy.*-  Here  and 
there  it  began  to  be  perceived  that  without  selling  the  West  could 
not  buy.  "To  enrich  a  country  by  trade,  much  more  must  be  ex- 
ported, than  imported Neither  ought  we  to  deal  with  any 

people,  who  will  not  barter  for,  or  purchase  our  surplus  produce 
.  .  .  ."  ^2  Hard  times  drove  home  the  lesson  that  abundant  pro- 
duction does  not  mean  prosperity  in  the  absence  of  a  market. 
".  .  .  .  Produce  never  was  greater  in  quantity  and  so  low  in  value," 
declared  the  Columbus  Gazette  in  1820.  "Oats  and  corn  and  hay 
will  not  defray  the  labor  of  harvesting  and  bringing  to  market. 
The  best  of  pork  was  sold  in  market  last  Saturday  for  two  cents 
per  pound.  Land  has  fallen  fifteen  per  cent  in  value  .  .  .  ."  ^^ 
"It  is  alarming  to  reflect  on  the  present  condition  of  our  state.  The 
country  is  overrun  with  produce,  and  destitute  of  a  market,"  wrote 
"Franklin"  in  the  Muskingum  Messenger.       "We  cannot  obtain 


corner  of  both  these  sections  the  public  revenue  is  collected,  and  where  is  it  distributed?  .... 
This  we  do  expect,  and  have  a  right  to  claim,  that  some  part  of  the  revenue  shall  be  employed 
on  public  improvements  among  us  .  .  .  ." 

*i  "The  pioneers  were  very  anxious  to  have  the  national  government  open  up  the 
streams  and  help  build  roads." — Esarey,  History  of  Indiana,   250. 

82  "We  are  at  this  time  able  to  produce  from  the  soil,  a  surplus  of  provision  ten  times 
greater  than  that  which  we  could  have  spared  ten  years  ago :  if  this  is  the  fact,  we  ought  at 
this  time  to  command  the  wealth  of  a  foreign  market,  in  the  same  ratio."  "Let  us  unite  in 
giving  encouragement  to  those  who  will  undertake  the  transportation  of  domestic  pro- 
duce .  .  .  ."    "Socrates,"  in  Supporter,  Aug.  5  and  12,  1818. 

83  ";^  Farmer,"  in  Supporter,  June  9,  1819. 

8<  Quoted  in  Scioto  Telegraph,  Oct.  12,  1820.  Cf.  prices  in  Cincinnati  market,  as  given 
by  the  Inquisitor  Advertiser  May  29,  1821 :  Flour,  $1.00  per  cwt.  Eggs  4c  per  dozen.  Hams 
4c  per  pound.  Beef,  choice  pieces,  4c  per  pound ;  inferior  pieces  2c.  Butter  8c.  Corn  meal, 
bushel,  20c.    Lard  4c.    Pork,  choice  pieces,  3c ;  inferior  pieces  2c. 


108  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

money  for  our  commodities,  so  how  are  we  to  purchase  the  luxuries 
or  even  the  necessaries  of  life?"  *^  A  favorite  proposal  was  to 
practice  self-denial,  "  to  purchase  no  foreign  goods,  and  to  abstain, 
as  far  as  possible,  from  the  use  of  all  articles  which  are  not  pro- 
duced or  manufactured"  at  home.-"  "Every  day  we  see  merchants' 
advertisements  exhibiting  the  most  costly  and  unnecessary  articles ; 
such  however  as  have  been  and  still  are  in  general  use.  If  you 
purchase  these  articles,  you  must  pay  for  them  in  specie  money, 

and  where  is  this  money  to  come  from Every  cent  of  good 

money  that  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  merchants,  is  immediately 
transported  to  the  Atlantic  states,  and  from  thence  shipped  to  for- 
eign countries  for  more  luxuries The  sooner  we  abolish  the 

traffic  in  foreign  goods,  the  sooner  will  the  dark  cloud  which  is  now 

lowering  over  our  state  be  driven  away "  *"   The  progress  of 

home  manufactures  was  watched  with  great  interest,  and  many  a 
calculation  was  made  which  showed,  on  paper,  the  substantial 
profits  to  be  realized  from  capital  so  invested.  A  writer  in  the 
Philanthropist  proved  that  fifty  acres  of  hilly  land,  unsuitable  for 
grain  raising,  if  used  as  pasture  for  merinos,  could  be  made  to 
yield  sixteen  hundred  dollars  at  prices  paid  for  wool  at  the  Steuben- 
ville  Woolen  Factory  and  elsewhere.  "The  larger  factories,"  he 
urged,  "must  be  looked  to  as  the  great  engines  for  turning  the  bal- 
ance of  trade  in  our  favor.  The  difficulties  under  which  we  labor 
at  present,  are  probably  greater  than  was  [sic]  ever  experienced 
in  the  United  States  before.  The  cause  lies  in  the  wrong  applica- 
tion of  labor  and  money."  ^^  Exhortations  to  use  domestic  manu- 
factures were  made  on  every  hand.  "Domestic  manufactures,  are 
in  every  body's  mouth — but  not  on  every  body's  back.  Less  talk 
and  more  action  would  look  better.  He  that  wears  a  suit  of  home- 
spun, does  more  to  encourage  domestic  manufactures  than  the  whole 


8s  Quoted  in  Scioto  Telegraph.  May  12,   1821. 

s»  Ibid. 

*'  Ibid.  Cf.  article  entitled  "Our  Soil,"  in  Pittsburg  Mercury,  quoted  by  Scioto  Tele- 
graph,  Aug.    25,    1821 :     "Flour    per   bbl.    $1  ;    whiskey    15    cents    per   gallon,    good    merchantable 

pine  boards  20  cents  per  100  feet,  sheep  and  calves  one  dollar  per  head One  bushel  and 

a  half  of  wheat  will  buy  a  pound  of  coffee,  a  barrel  of  flour  will  buy  a  pound  of  tea;  12^ 
barrels  will  buy  one  yard  of  superfine  broadcloth.  Foreign  goods  are  plenty,  laid  in  on  the  best 
terms.  They  are  sold  at  a  very  moderate  profit  and  very  cheap.  The  merchant  is  very  sorry 
he  has  it  not  in  his  power  to  take  produce  in  payment.  He  cannot  remit  it  to  Philadelphia ; 
but  if  the  farmer  will  sell  his  flour,  bacon  and  whiskey  to  somebody  else,  and  procure  the  cash, 
the  goods  can  be  had  at  almost  first  cost  for  specie  and  par  money,  but  at  a  very  small  ad- 
vance if  paid  in  current  paper.  This  is  the  condition  of  the  western  country.  This  is  the 
prospect  of  the  farmer  under  our  present  system." 

88  Quoted  by  Scioto  Telegraph,   Feb.   12,   1821. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  109 

herd  of  scribblers,  who  write  so  zealously  on  the  subject,"  wrote 
one  zealous  scribbler,  who  proposed  the  organization  of  clubs  for 
the  purchase  of  the  cloth  output  of  local  mills.  This  "would  be  of 
more  real  advantage  to  society,  than  all  the  abuse  that  could  in  a 
year  be  heaped  on  agents,  brokers  and  merchants,  by  those  who 
wear  their  stuffs,  and  pay  them  exchanges,  carriages  and  profits."  ^^ 
"This  looks  like  doing  business,"  said  the  Swpporter  by  way  of 
comment.  "The  purchaser  will  have  the  proud  satisfaction  of 
wearing  the  native  product  of  his  own  country,  and  of  doing  more 
towards  establishing  its  real  independence,  than  he  could  by  killing 

a  myriad  of  its  enemies It  will  be  the  only  effectual  way  to 

prevent  our  money  travelling  over  the  mountains  for  English  cloths 
— and  will  teach  the  storekeepers,  through  the  medium  of  their 
interests,  that  it  will  be  better  for  them  to  sell  domestic  cloths 

than  none "  ^^ 

"The  proud  satisfaction  of  wearing  native  products"  did  not 
prove  to  be  an  adequate  motive  to  create  a  demand  for  the  products 
of  the  home  manufacturer,  and  not  all  of  the  tirade  againsT  the 
merchants  who  dealt  in  foreign  goods  served  to  drive  them  out  of 
business,  as  the  advertisements  in  any  contemporary  newspaper 
will  show.°^  The  lack  of  foreign  demand  continued  to  mean  a 
plethora  of  farm  produce  at  low  prices,  while  the  fashion  for  for- 
eign goods  interfered  with  the  growth  of  manufactures  on  a  scale 
sufficient  to  absorb  the  agricultural  surplus.  Then  at  last  came  the 
conviction  that  the  growth  of  agriculture  had  too  far  exceeded  that 
of  manufactures,  and  that  a  more  equal  balance  should  be  brought 
about  between  them.^-     "For  the  interest  of  the  farmer  to  be  pro- 

**  Greensburgh  Gazette,  quoted  by  Supporter,   Oct.   6,   1819. 

»»  Ibid. 

*i  Such  advertisements  as  the  following  may  be  found  in  almost  any  paper  in  any  Issue 
of  the  period:  "McCoy  &  Culbertson  ....  have  just  received  an  assortment  of  Spring  and 
Summer  Goods,  of  which  they  are  anxious  to  dispose  Wholesale  or  Retail."  Among  the  goods 
are  "fancy  Ginghams,  Leghorn  Bonnets,  Tortoise  Combs,  French  Prunella  Shoes,  Morocco  shoes, 
ribbons.  Damask  crape  shawls.  Real  Merino  shawls,  silk  umbrellas,  figured  gauze,  painted 
feather  fans,  superfine  Russia  drilling  and  Angola  cassimere,  for  summer  pantaloons,"  etc. 
Supporter,  May  3,  1820. 

"-  Some   of   the   plain   people   would    have   turned    back    to   the    days   of   the   self-sufficient 

household.    Says  "Dorothy  Thrift"  :    "I  want  him   [her  husband]  to  raise  flax  and  less  rye 

[He]  is  in  debt  for  this  trash  [India  cottons],  and  his  rye  won't  pay  his  debts,  even  if  he 
could  raise  ever  so  much.  Year  after  year  he  will  persist  in  this  fatal  practice ;  and  every 
year  our  stock  of  sheep  and  cows  diminishes,  and  we  grow  poorer  and  poorer ;  my  girls  are 
idle  for  want  of  wool  and  flax."  She  compares  this  situation  with  that  of  her  own  girlhood, 
when  she  and  her  sisters  were  busy  daily  with  spinning  the  raw  materials  furnished  by  the 
father,    who    "was    delighted    to    see    us    clothed    in    the    fabrics   of   our   own    industry,    and    his 

house   furnished   with   substantial    homespun   in   abundance I    will   scold   and    fret   to   see 

my  girls  idle,  hardly  decent  in  dress,  my  house  furnished  with  cotton  cobwebs  and  rags,  and 
all  going  to  loss  and  ruin,  for  want  of  flax  and  wool,  and  wheels,  merely  for  want  of  mate- 
rials  "    Plough  Boy,  quoted  by  Scioto  Telegraph,  Oct.   12,   1820. 


110  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

moted,  it  is  not  only  necessary  to  procure  merchants  to  export  his 
produce,  but  it  is  also  necessary  to  find  a  market  where  it  can  be 
sold.  In  the  present  state  of  the  world,  the  latter  is  the  most  diflS- 
cult  point  to  be  gained.  Plenty  of  merchants  can  be  found,  but  only 
few  markets;  consequently  the  surplus  produce  lies  heavy  on  the 
hands  of  the  agriculturist "  This  writer  argues  that  for- 
eign countries  receive  only  such  of  our  exports  as  they  must  have, 
and  would  pay  for  them  if  we  took  no  goods  in  exchange.  If,  then, 
we  produced  our  own  manufactures,  the  export  trade  would  not 
suffer,  and  a  favorable  balance  would  result.  Referring  to  the  for- 
mer views  of  Jefferson,  he  continues,  "The  day  is  past  when  it  was 
prudent  for  America  to  have  her  work  shops  in  Europe,  and  the 
principal  arguments  in  favor  of  that  system  are  done  away.  'You 
have  neither  capital  nor  knowledge  sufficient  to  be  your  own  manu- 
facturers,' said  the  political  economist  of  that  day:  'you  have  mil- 
lions of  acres  of  fertile  and  productive  land,  and  while  your  woods 
continue  to  be  uncultivated  your  business  is  agriculture,  and  you 
have  no  business  with  manufacture  which  is  only  suitable  for  coun- 
tries of  dense  population.'  This  reasoning  would  well  apply  pro- 
vided our  manufacturing  shops  were  to  be  supplied  with  provisions 
exclusively  by  us — but  since  we  cannot  obtain  admission  for  our 
produce  in  provisions  into  those  shops,  except  in  times  of  great 
scarcity  or  famine — when  they  will  not  exchange  with  us  their 
manufactures  for  our  corn,  our  flour,  and  our  pork — and  since  the 
manufactures  which  we  import  far  exceed  the  amount  of  such  raw 
material  as  we  export,  the  balance  must  be  paid  in  money,  very 
much  to  our  disadvantage We  have  more  land  under  culti- 
vation than  is  necessary  for  the  subsistence  of  our  own  citizens, 
and  more  produce  than  we  can  find  a  market  for  in  foreign  coun- 
tries. We  have  accumulated  a  capital  greater  than  we  can  find 
employment  for  either  in  agricultural  or  commercial  pursuits — and 

our  population  has  at  least  doubled  within  twenty  years Who 

can  say  then  ....  that  it  is  not  full  time  for  us  to  remove  our  work- 
shops from  Europe  to  America,  and  endeavor  to  do  that  for  our- 
selves which  we  have  to  pay  other  nations  for  doing  for  us.  We 
may  boast  of  our  liberty  and  independence  in  a  political  light,  but 
if  we  are  independent  of  a  British  government,  we  are  still  depend- 
ent on  a  British  people — and  that  dependence  must  continue  so 
long  as  we  suffer  our  workshops  to  remain  in  England."  ^^ 


^'^  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser,   April  2,   1822.    Cf.   article  in   issue  of  Jan.   27,   1823: 
'It  appears  pretty  evident  that  there  is   already  too  much   land   under  cultivation,   witness  the 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WEST  111 

Such  was  the  economic  doctrine  which  gripped  the  whole 
Ohio  Valley  in  the  early  twenties.  Governors  of  states  aided  in  its 
dissemination.  William  Findlay,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  his  message 
of  1820,  declared:  'The  limited  demand  for,  and  consequent  low 
prices  of,  our  agricultural  products  in  foreign  markets,  cannot  fail 
to  suggest  the  necessity  as  well  as  the  policy  of  promoting  domes- 
tic manufactures,  which,  if  properly  encouraged,  would  provide 
a  sufficient  home  market  for  all  our  surplus  produce  .  .  .  ."  ^*  Gov- 
ernor Jonathan  Jennings,  of  Indiana,  anticipated  the  sentiment  of 
the  Pennsylvania  executive  by  a  few  days.'^^  Little  by  little  the  be- 
lief in  the  necessity  of  home  manufactures,  and  of  the  fostering 
care  of  the  government  in  order  to  obtain  them,  took  hold  of  the 
minds  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people  of  the  West.^^ 


price  of  its  produce.  What  use  can  there  be  in  cultivating  land  when  its  produce  cannot  find  a 
market?  ....  Does  it  not  prove,  to  a  moral  certainty,  that  the  time  is  arrived  that  they 
[the  people  of  the  United  States]  should  turn  their  attention  to  manufactures,  when  it  evidently 
appears  that  the  produce  of  what  land  is  already  under  cultivation  cannot  command  a  market 
to  advantage  ?  Is  it  not  plain  to  any  unprejudiced  person  that  when  as  much  land  is  under 
cultivation  as  to  reduce  the  profits  of  the  husbandman  to  nearly  nothing,  when  as  much  can 
be  produced  in  one  year  as  can  be  disposed  of  in  two,  that  the  same  effect  must  be  produced 
as  if  there  was  not  another  acre  of  land  to  cultivate.  Is  it  not  plain,  we  say,  that  something 
ought  to  be  done  to  find  a  market  for  this  redundancy  of  produce,  and  to  find  employment 
for  that  portion  of  our  population  which  must  eventually  be  thrown  out  of  employment  when 
the  agriculturists  relax  in  their  exertions,  a  relaxation  which  is  naturally  to  be  expected  when 
they  cannot  have  their  produce  taken  off  their  hands  ?  Yes,  we  say,  now  is  the  time  for  the 
ranks  of  the  manufacturer  to  increase.  Agriculture  has  been  pursued  to  its  acme.  The  number 
employed  in  it  is  disproportionate  to  that  of  the  mechanical  branch — and  the  true  interest 
of  the  whole  community  will  be  promoted  by  producing  an  equilibrium  between  them — the 
want  of  employment,  (to  use  the  terms  of  the  sensible  writer  before  hinted  at)  has  driven 
mechanics  into  the  wilds  to  make  farmers  of  them — by  which  instead  of  customers  have  become 
rivals  to  agriculturists.     And  by  this  means  the  farming  business  is   overdone " 

»*  Scioto  Telegraph,  Dec.  21,  1820. 

*^  ".  .  .  .  The  surplus  produce  of  the  state,  increasing  in  Quantity  and  reduced  in  price, 
has  been  greatly  deficient  in  the  amount  of  its  proceeds,  to   meet  the  demands  upon  us  which 

have  been  created  by  the  consumption  of  foreign  objects  of  merchandise To  retrace  these 

errors,  however  fascinating,  which  national  pride  or  false  ambition  may  have  produced ;  and 
directing  the  future  by  a  strict  scrutiny  of  the  past ;  by  curtailing  our  consumption  of  foreign 
articles,  by  the  application  of  active  industry,  not  less  to  domestic  manufactures  of  every 
description,  than  to  the  soil  ....  we  may  ere  long  be  reinstated  in  our  former  independ- 
ence  "    Ibid.,  Dec.  28. 

**  Light  is  cast  on  the  process  of  education  by  the  following  extract :  "A  Farmer"  writes 
to  the  editor  of  the  Western  Herald :  "Being  over  the  other  day  at  the  Squire's  and  happen- 
ing to  get  into  conversation  about  the  tariff  and  the  suppoi't  of  domestic  manufactures,  both  of 
which  I  confess  I  was  not  disposed  to  encourage,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  have  a  tendency 
to  interrupt  our  commercial  relations  with  England  and  would  perhaps  cause  them  to  re- 
taliate on  us  by  throwing  obstacles  in  our  way,  the  squire  informed  me  that  there  was  a 
regulation  for  some  years  past,  which  prevented  our  flour  and  grain  from  entering  their  mar- 
ket. Now  Mr.  Wilson,  I  want  to  make  enquiry  through  the  medium  of  your  paper  if  any  such 
restriction  does  exist.  (I  think  he  called  it  a  corn  law)  .  .  .  ."  If  correctly  informed  by  the 
"squire,"  the  "Farmer"  declares  he  will  become  a  supporter  of  "all  such  measures  as  will 
have  a  tendency  to  counteract  such  restriction,  and  if  we  can  not  obtain  a  market  abroad  will 
encourage  the  system  which  will  afford  a  market  at  home."  The  editor  confirms  the  "squire's" 
information,    and   asks :    "Such   being   the    case,    the   question    arises,    Ought   we    to    receive    th« 


112  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

When  it  was  realized  that  Europe  could  not  or  would  not  re- 
ceive the  surplus  products  of  western  agriculture,  that  fact  was  ac- 
cepted as  the  explanation  of  the  "hard  times,"  and  a  new  signifi- 
cance was  imparted  to  the  old  demand  for  a  home  market.  The  in- 
adequacy of  the  local  western  market  had  long  been  admitted  by 
implication,  and  with  the  new  light  in  regard  to  the  foreign  demand 
came  new  stress  upon  a  domestic  market  as  wide  as  the  United 
States.  In  the  theory  of  a  national  economy  which  now  replaced 
the  provincial  economy  in  the  contemplation  of  the  West,  internal 
improvements  held,  of  course,  an  essential  place;  but  the  protec- 
tive tariff  was  relied  upon  as  the  means  of  redressing  the  balance 
between  agriculture  and  manufacturing,  and  by  encouraging  the 
latter,  of  diverting  a  sufficient  proportion  of  the  population  from 
agriculture  to  render  the  two  interests  reciprocally  supporting." 

3.   Divergence  of  West  and  South 

Clay  and  Calhoun,  with  all  their  eif  orts  to  embrace  nation-wide 
interests  in  their  thought,  spoke  as  exponents  of  the  West;  that 
is,  their  scheme  of  national  policy  fell  in  with  the  local  interests  of 
the  western  section.  Calhoun,  representing  a  constituency  in  that 
piedmont  region  from  which  so  much  of  the  western  population 
had  sprung,  and  which  was  in  1816  still  partly  a  region  of  farms; 
and  Clay,  from  the  state  which  was  the  first  fruit  of  the  trans- 


products  of  any  nation  that  will  not  take  our  products  in  exchange?  Every  farmer  can  answer 
this  question."    Western  Herald,  April  10,  1824. 

Laissez  {aire  arguments  are  rare  indeed  but  appear  occasionally.  Witness  the  follow- 
ing: "American  manufactures  will  flourish  without  any  alterations  of  the  present  tariff,  as  far 
as  it  is  the  general  interest  or  the  interest  or  HAPPINESS  of  the  great  mass  of  our  fellow 
citizens  that  they  should  flourish."  "I  wish  not  to  see  the  happy  population  of  the  New- 
England  states  reduced  to  the  level  of  a  British  weaving  population I  wish  not  to  see  the 

increased  and  overgrown  population  of  cities  and  towns,  which  is  the  sure  causes  \.sic'\  of  vice, 
disease  and  poverty  .  .  .  ."  The  writer  cites  Jefferson's  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  and  adheres  to  the 
former  views  of  the  author  regardless  of  the  change  in  the  circumstances  of  the  United  States 
and  the  western  country.  He  also  cites  similar  opinions  held  by  Franklin.  Liberty  Hall,  quoted 
by  Supporter,  July  21  and  28,  1819. 

""  The  intimate  relation  between  western  prosperity  and  the  American  system,  and  the 
dependence  of  the  West  upon  Federal  action  are  illustrated  by  the  complaint  of  the  Western 
Herald:  "Unless  the  western  country  can  prevail  upon  the  government  to  promote  means  for 
transporting  its  surplus  agricultural  produce  to  a  certain  and  safe  market,  and  unless  their 
manufactures  be  so  protected  as  to  be  placed  on  a  permanent  footing,  property  will  continue 
to  depreciate,  and  poverty  and  misery  will  be  our  constant  companions."    Feb.   7,   1824. 

"More   foreign   products   has    (sic)    been   imported  than   can   be   paid   for A   few 

years  will  be  sufficient  to  correct  the  evil,  the  correction  may  be  expedited  or  protracted  as  our 
national  legislature  is  wise  or  improvident,  artd  as  manufactures  are  hastened  or  delayed.  The 
doctrine  that  inculcates  the  propriety  of  letting  commerce  and  manufactures  find  their  own 
level,  and  of,  depending  on  themselves,  is  nonsense ;  manufactures  never  succeeded  in  any 
country  without  artificial  aid  .  .  .  ."    Supporter,  May  12,  1819,  quoting  Pittsburg  Gazette. 


DIVERGENCE  OF  WEST  AND  SOUTH  113 

montane  migration,  derived  their  enthusiasm  concerning  the  na- 
tion's future  from  the  very  fact  that  it  was  developing  so  rapidly 
in  the  West.  "We  are  great,  and  rapidly — he  was  about  to  say  fear- 
fully— growing.  This  ....  is  our  pride  and  danger — our  weakness 
and  our  strength  ....  Whatever  impedes  the  intercourse  of  the 
extremes  with  this,  the  centre  of  the  Republic,  weakens  the  Union. 
....  Let  us  then  ....  bind  the  Republic  together  with  a  perfect 
system  of  roads  and  canals."  ^^  Calhoun's  advocacy  of  western 
interests  in  this  famous  speech  on  the  Bonus  Bill  was  incidental  to 
his  argument  for  national  unity;  but  Clay  soon  afterwards  spoke 
avowedly  as  a  western  man,  representing  a  new  country  which 
needed  means  of  communication  as  it  did  the  breath  of  life,  al- 
though in  almost  the  same  breath  he  declared  he  spoke  as  a  citizen 
of  the  Union,  looking  forward  to  a  great  destiny,  so  closely  were 
the  welfare  of  the  West  and  of  the  nation  associated  in  his  think- 
ing.^^  In  all  of  his  advocacy  of  the  American  System,  in  fact.  Clay 
appears  to  the  historian  as  the  champion  of  the  West,  engaged  in 
an  effort  to  persuade  the  other  great  sections  into  the  belief  that 
their  interests  are  in  harmony  with  his  great  scheme  of  policy.^"" 
The  reciprocal  relation  of  the  farmer  and  manufacturer  was  suf- 
ficiently obvious,  but  in  vain  did  he  seek  to  reconcile  the  ship  owner 
and  the  planter  to  the  idea  of  a  national  economy.  The  westward 
movement  in  this  period  represented  directly  the  progress  of  the 
farming  and  planting   interests.    In   the   Southwest  the  planter 


^*  Annals,  Fourteenth  Cong.,  2  sess.,  853. 

BB  March  13,   1818.     Works  of  Clay    (Federal  edition),  VI,  116  et  seq. 

10"  "I  am  aware  that  on  two  subjects  I  have  the  misfortune  to  differ  with  many  of  my 
Virginia     friends — internal     improvements     and     home     manufactures.      My     opinion     has     been 

formed   after   much   deliberation,    and   my   best   judgment   yet   tells   me   that    I   am    right 

I  believe  Virginia  and  the  Southern  States  as  much  interested,  directly  or  indirectly,  as  any 
other  parts  of  the  Union  in  their  encouragement.  When  the  Government  was  first  adopted 
we  had  no  interior.  Our  population  was  inclosed  between  the  sea  and  the  mountains  which 
run  parallel  to  it.  Since  then  the  west  part  of  your  State,  the  western  parts  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  all  the  Western  States,  have  been  settled.  The  wars  of  Europe  have  con- 
sumed all  the  surplus  produce  on  both  sides  of  the  mountains.  Those  wars  have  terminated 
and  emigration  has  ceased.  We  find  ourselves  annually  in  possession  of  an  immense  surplus. 
There  is  no  market  for  it  abroad  :  there  is  none  at  hpme.  If  there  were  a  foreign  market,  before 
we,  in  the  interior,  could  reach  it,  the  intervening  population  would  have  supplied  it.  There 
can  be  no  foreign  market  adequate  to  the  consumption  of  the  vast  and  growing  surplus  of  the 
produce  of  our  agriculture.  We  must,  then,  have  a  home  market.  Some  of  us  must  cultivate ; 
some  fabricate.  And  we  must  have  reasonable  protection  against  the  machinations  of  foreign 
powers.  On  the  sea-boai'd  you  want  a  navy,  fortifications,  protection,  foreign  commerce.  In  the 
interior  we  want  internal  improvements,  home  manufactures.  You  have  what  you  want,  and 
object  to  our  getting  what  we  want.    Should  not  the  interests  of  both  parties  be  provided  for? 

"It  has  appeared  to  me,  in  the  administration  of  the  general  Government,  to  be  a  just 
principle  to  inquire  what  great  interests  belong  to  each  section  of  our  country,  and  to  promote 
those  interests,  as  far  as  practicable,  consistently  with  the  Constitution,  having  always  an  eye 


114  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

pressed  hard  upon  the  heels  of  the  pioneer  farmer.  Under  the 
stimulus  of  the  growing  demand  of  European  factories  for  cot- 
ton, "black  belts"  were  forming  everywhere  in  the  alluvial  lands 
of  the  Gulf  states  by  the  mid-thirties.  Capitalism  as  represented 
by  the  plantation  system  outbid  the  small  farmer  at  the  land  auc- 
tions, or  bought  him  out  if  already  established,  in  either  case  send- 
ing him  onward  to  the  new  frontier  or  crowding  him  back  into  the 
hills  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  "poor  whites."  ^°^  Indirectly  the 
westward  movement  involved  also  the  fortunes  of  the  other  two 
great  interests,  maritime  commerce  and  manufactures.  The  first 
had  suffered  severely  during  the  period  of  non-intercourse  and  war, 
while  the  same  events  had  stimulated  domestic  industry.  In  the 
succeeding  years  ocean  commerce  continued  to  be  affected  adversely 
by  the  forces  which  promoted  manufactures.  On  the  economic 
side,  in  brief,  the  half-generation  following  the  war  of  1812  wit- 
nessed a  revolution  in  the  relations  of  the  great  economic  interests 
and  in  the  relations  of  the  sections  where  their  chief  strength  lay. 
The  farming  interest,  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds  through  the 
rapid  settlement  especially  of  the  Northwest,  was  growing  in  po- 
litical power  almost  in  the  ratio  of  its  territorial  expansion.  Much 
the  same  was  true  of  the  planting  interest  in  the  Southwest.  Manu- 
factures and  ocean  commerce,  the  one  growing,  the  other  declining, 
the  one  capable  of  spreading  over  the  Northwest  the  other  localized 
on  the  coast,  held  their  futures  subject  in  large  measure  to  their 
economic  and  political  relations  with  the  other  interests. 

The  key  to  the  national  politics  of  the  period  1815-1825  is  to 
be  sought  in  the  rivalries  and  shifting  alliances  of  these  interests 
and  of  the  sections  where  they  centered.  The  "piedmontese"  ex- 
pansion of  this  era  was  a  continuation  of  the  movement  which  had 


to  the  welfare  of  the  whole.  Assuming  this  principle,  does  any  one  doubt  that  if  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  the  Western  States,  constituted  an  inde- 
pendent nation,  it  would  immediately  protect  the  important  interests  in  question?  And  is  it 
not  to  be  feared  that  if  protection  is  not  to  be  found  for  vital  interests,  from  the  existing 
systems,  in  great  parts  of  the  confederacy,  those  parts  will  ultimately  seek  to  establish  a  sys- 
tem that  will  afford  the  requisite  protection?  I  would  not,  in  the  application  of  the  principle 
indicated,  give  to  the  peculiar  interests  of  great  sections  all  the  protection  which  they  would 
probably  receive  if  those  sections  constituted  separate  and  independent  States.  I  would,  however, 
extend  some  protection,  and  measure  it  by  balancing   the  countervailing   interests,    if  there   be 

such,  in  other  quarters  of  the  Union "    Clay  to  Francis  Brooke,  Aug.  28,  1823.    Works,  IV, 

'8  et  seq. 

^"^  Phillips,  "Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Southern  Black  Belts."  Cf.  the  typical  experience 
of  Thomas  Dabney,  who  removed  from  Virginia  to  Mississippi  about  1835,  where  he  acquired  a 
plantation  of  four  thousand  acres  by  purchasing  the  land  of  half  a  dozen  small  farmers.  Callen- 
der.  Economic  History,  642,  quoting  Smedes,  Memorials  of  a  Southern  Planter. 


DIVERGENCE  OF  WEST  AND  SOUTH  115 

won  the  early  West  for  Republicanism  in  its  race  with  the  Fed- 
eralist party.  Superficially  it  seemed  to  insure  the  continued  domi- 
nance of  the  triumphant  party.  On  the  side  of  party  history,  then, 
the  meaning  of  the  period  is  to  be  sought  in  an  answer  to  the 
question,  whether  the  Republican  name  and  organization  could 
continue  to  hold  together  in  fact  the  old  party  elements,  now  so 
altered  in  their  relations. 

A  divergent  drift  of  the  South  and  West,  both  professing  the 
Republican  name,  became  apparent  while  Madison  was  still  presi- 
dent. With  a  regard  for  the  letter  of  the  constitution  worthy  of 
the  original  traditions  of  the  party,  he  vetoed  the  Bonus  Bill,  a 
measure  inspired  in  part  by  his  own  recommendation  of  the  policy 
of  internal  improvements.^"-  Monroe,  following  in  his  footsteps, 
announced  to  Congress  in  his  first  message  his  disbelief  in  their 
right  to  promote  such  works  without  an  amendment  altering  the 
constitution.^"^  To  the  leaders  of  the  New  School  such  literalism 
seemed  to  make  of  the  constitution  itself  a  bar  to  the  country's 
progress.  "If  we  permit  a  low,  sordid,  selfish,  and  sectional  spirit 
to  take  possession  of  this  House  ....  we  will  divide  [disrupt  the 
Union],"  cried  Calhoun,  not  indeed  in  reply  to  Monroe's  message, 
but  combatting  a  similar  narrowness.  The  constitution  "ought  to 
be  construed  with  plain,  good  sense,"  and  the  uniform  sense  of 
Congress  and  the  country  had  approved  the  power  of  appropriating 
money  for  the  improvement  of  the  means  of  communication.^"'* 
Clay  referred  to  the  views  of  the  administration  group  as  a  "water- 
gruel  regimen,"  an  interpretation  which  would  construe  the  Con- 
stitution to  a  dead  letter  and  reduce  it  to  an  inanimate  skeleton. 
The  rule  of  construction,  he  urged,  must  not  "forget  the  purposes 
of  the  Constitution,  and  the  duties  you  are  called  on  to^  fulfill,  that 
of  preserving  the' union  being  one  of  the  greatest  magnitude."  Was 
the  Constitution,  with  its  grant  of  power  to  establish  post  offices 
and  post  roads  and  to  regulate  commerce  between  the  states,  made 
for  the  Atlantic  margin  of  the  country  only?    "Every  man  who 


1"^  Richardson,  Messages  of  the  Presidents,  I,  584.  A  hint  of  his  constitutional  scruples 
was  contained  in  the  message  of  1815,  but  was  unheeded  by  Congress:  "It  is  a  happy  reflection 
that  any  defect  of  constitutional  authority  which  may  be  encountered  can  be  supplied  in  a  mode 
which  the  Constitution  itself  has  providently  pointed  out."  Cf.  Jefferson's  recommendation  in 
messages  of  1806  and  1808  (Ford,  WritingF.  of  Jefferson,  VIII,  493;  X  224)  ;  and  comments 
on  Madison's  veto  in  contemporary  correspondence   (ibid.,  X,   80,  91,   et  passim). 

^"^  Richardson,  Messages,  11,  18.  Cf.  Madison  to  Monroe,  Dec.  27,  1817  ;  Works  of  Madi- 
son   (Congress  edition).  III,   55-56. 

^"^  Annals,  Fourteenth  Cong.,  2  sess.,  853  et  seq. 


116  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

looks  at  the  Constitution  in  the  spirit  to  entitle  him  to  the  charac- 
ter of  a  statesman,  must  elevate  his  views  to  the  height  which  this 
nation  is  destined  to  reach  in  the  rank  of  nations.  We  are  not  legis- 
lating for  this  moment  ^nly,  or  for  the  present  generation,  or  for 
the  present  populated  limits  of  the  United  States;  but  our  acts 
must  embrace  a  wider  scope, — reaching  northwestward  to  the  Pa- 
cific, and  southwardly  to  the  river  Del  Norte.  Imagine  this  extent 
of  territory  covered  with  sixty,  or  seventy,  or  an  hundred  millions 
of  people.  The  powers  which  exist  in  this  government  now  will 
exist  then ;  and  those  which  will  exist  then  exist  now."  "^ 

Believing  that  Congress  possessed  adequate  powers  under  the 
constitiifion  as  it  stood.  Clay  and  his  supporters  refused  to  jeo- 
pardize the  rights  of  the  national  legislature  by  referring  them  to 
the  hazard  of  an  amendment  which  might  not  carry.^°® 

Thus  differing  with  Monroe  over  what  Clay  regarded  as  fun- 
damental, it  is  hardly  necessary  to  refer  the  leadership  of  the  op- 
position, which  presently  fell  to  Clay,  to  personal  pique  over  the 
appointment  of  Adams  instead  of  himself  as  secretary  of  state. 
Indeed,  the  clash  over  constitutional  construction  between  the  Old 
School  presidents  and  the  leaders  of  the  New  Republicanism  was 
the  first  appearance  of  a  breach  which  was  to  become  permanent, 
and  which  was  to  widen  until  the  party  was  hopelessly  divided. 
The  vetoes  by  presidents  on  constitutional  grounds  of  measures  of 
which  they  approved  when  judged  on  their  intrinsic  merits  repre- 
sented an  attitude  which  was  presently  replaced  by  an  opposition 
to  nationalizing  measures  per  se,  and  which  assumed  the  doctrine 
of  strict  construction  as  a  convenient  weapon  of  defence.^"    In 


''■"^Annals,  Fifteenth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  I,  1165  et  seq.  Cf.  speech  of  Henry  St.  George 
Tucker,  one  of  the  New  School  Republicans  from  Virginia,  ibid.,  1116.  On  the  negative  side, 
see  speeches  of  Senator  James  Barbour,  of  Virginia,  ibid..  Fourteenth  Cong.,  2  sess.,  893  ;  Fif- 
teenth Cong.,  1  sess.,  I,   1151  ;  and  proposed  amendment,  ibid.,  21-22. 

108  Wcrka  of  Clay,  VI,  117.  Cf.  Tucker:  "But  why,  it  is  asked,  not  amend  the  Consti- 
tution ?  The  answer  is  easy.  Those  who  do  not  believe  we  possess  the  power,  are  right  in 
wishing  an  amendment.  Those  who  believe  we  have  it,  would  be  wrong  in  referring  it  to  the 
States ;  and  as  the  Committee  were  of  this  opinion,  they  could  not  recommend  an  amendment. 
For,  if  an  amendment  be  recommended,  and  should  not  be  obtained,  we  should  have  sur- 
rendered a  power  which  we  are  bound  to  maintain  if  we  think  we  possess  it."  Annals,  Fif- 
teenth Cong.,  1  sess.,  I,  1119.  For  efforts  to  amend,  see  ibid.,  21-22  (Barbour)  ;  Seventeenth 
Cong.,  2  sess.,  200    (Smith)  ;  Eighteenth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  I,  134  et  seq.     (Van   Buren). 

i""  As  late  as  1824  Jefferson's  objection  to  internal  improvements  was  academic — lack 
of  constitutional  power.  "I  suppose,"  he  wrote,  "there  is  not  a  State,  perhaps  not  a  man  in 
the  Union,  who  would  not  consent  to  add  this  to  the  powers  of  the  general  government."  To 
Edward  Livingston,  April  4,  1824.  Ford,  Writings  of  Jefferson.,  X,  300.  Yet  he  was  ready 
(1825)  to  have  the  state  legislature  declare  internal  improvement  legislation  null  and  void. 
Ibid.,  X,  359. 


DIVERGENCE  OF  WEST  AND  SOUTH  117 

other  words,  behind  Presidents  Madison  and  Monroe  was  the  sea- 
board South,  which  became  the  seat  of  a  marked  reaction  against 
the  nationalism  which  dominated  the  country  at  the  opening  of  the 
era,  the  seat  of  a  revived  insistence  upon  sectional  interests  and 
state  rights.  This  reaction  had  its  mainspring  in  antagonism  to 
the  American  System  and  the  nationalism  toward  which  the  West 
was  so  steadily  tending.^"^ 

The  cotton-raising  region  was  hopelessly  out  of  the  range  of 
the  benefits  expected  from  the  development  of  the  home  market. 
In  1816  the  argument  for  protection  to  develop  home  manufactures 
of  necessaries  as  a  means  of  national  defence  won  a  measure  of 
acquiescence  in  the  South.    Lowndes,  of  South  Carolina,  as  chair- 


108  Ijj  Virginia  the  reaction  paralleled  the  decline  of  the  influence  of  the  state  in  federal 
affairs.  The  retirement  of  the  Old  School  leaders  gave  place  for  a  group  of  younger  men  who 
broke  with  the  New  School  led  by  Clay  and  Calhoun,  and  attacked  their  nationalizing  ten- 
dencies. Judge  Spencer  Roane,  of  this  group,  became  conspicuous  for  his  criticism  of  the 
decisions  of  the  supreme  court.  (Articles  signed  "Algernon  Sidney,"  in  Richmond  Enquirer, 
March-August,  1821.  See  comment  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  in  Memoirs,  V,  364).  P.  P.  Bar- 
bour and  John  Tyler  were  of  this  party,  and  John  Randolph  acted  with  them.  Their  agitation 
did  much  to  revive  and  disseminate  the  old  dogmas  of  strict  construction  and  state  rights. 
Jefferson  reverted  to  his  former  views  in  these  years  of  controversy.  Cf.  Ambler,  Ritchie,  73, 
82-83.  John  Taylor  contributed  to  the  reaction  by  his  writings  on  government.  Of  Construction 
Construed,  published  in  1820,  Jefferson  wrote:  "It  is  the  most  logical  retraction  of  our  gov- 
ernments to  the  original  and  true  principles  of  the  constitution  creating  them,  which  has  ap- 
peared since  the  adoption  of  that  instrument."  Washington,  Works  of  Jefferson,  VII,  213.  The 
next  year  (1825)  Jefferson  proposed  to  Madison  a  protest  by  Virginia  against  the  policy  of 
the  administration  in  the  matter  of  internal  improvements,  to  be  made  in  terms  of  the  reso- 
lutions of  1798.    Ford,   Writings  of  Jefferson,  X,  359. 

Madison  did  not  follow  the  reaction  to  its  extreme.  His  views  in  this  period  are  quite 
consistent  with  his  nationalism  in  the  days  of  the  formation  of  the  constitution.  See  Works 
(Congress  edition).  III,  246,  325,  483;  IV,  19,  210,  296,  et  passim.  Monroe  also  took  a  middle 
ground.    Cf.  document  accompanying  his  message  of  1822,  vetoing  the  Cumberland  Road  Bill. 

The  great  decisions  of  the  supreme  court  (notably  Martin  v.  Hunter's  Lessee,  1816;  Mc- 
Culloch  V.  Mai-yland,  1819;  Dartmouth  College  v.  Woodward,  1819;  and  Cohens  v.  Virginia,  1821), 
under  the  dominance  of  the  powerful  mind  of  the  former  Federalist  John  Marshall,  were  in 
such  striking  harmony  with  the  constitutional  views  of  the  New  School  Republicans  that  Jef- 
ferson referred  to  the  latter  as  "pseudo-republicans  but  real  federalists"  (Washington,  Writings 
of  Jefferson,  VII,  278),  and  described  the  judiciary  as  the  "subtle  corps  of  sappers  and  miners 
constantly  working  under  ground  to  undermine  the  foundations  of  our  confederated  fabric 
....  construing  our  constitution  from  a  co-ordination  of  a  general  and  special  government 
to  a  general  and  supreme  one  alone."  Letter  to  Ritchie,  Dec.  25,  1820,  ibid.,  VII,  192.  Cf.  212, 
223,  294.  "The  original  objects  of  the  federalists  were,  1st,  to  warp  our  govei-nment  more  to 
the  form  and  principles  of  monarchy,  and,  2d,  to  weaken  the  barriers  of  the  State  governments 
as  co-ordinate  powers.  In  the  first  they  have  been  so  completely  foiled  by  the  universal  spirit 
of  the  nation,  that  they  have  abandoned  the  enterprise,  shrunk  from  the  odium  of  their  old 
appellation,  taken  to  themselves  a  participation  of  ours,  and  under  the  pseudo-republican 
mask,  are  now  aiming  at  their  second  object,  and  strengthened  by  unsuspecting  or  apostate  re- 
cruits from  our  ranks,  are  advancing  fast  towards  an  ascendancy."  To  Judge  Johnson,  June 
12,  1823.  Ibid.,  293.  Contrast  Madison's  views  as  shown  by  comment  on  McCulIoch  v.  Maryland, 
in  letter  to  Judge  Roane,  Sept.  2,  1819  (Works,  Congress  edition.  III,  143  et  seq.)  ;  and  on 
Cohens  v.  Virginia,  in  letter  to  same.  May  6,  1821  (ibid.,  217  et  seg.)  See  Niles  Register,  XVII, 
311 ;  XX,  118  ;  XXI,  404,  for  Virginia  legislature  on  supreme  court. 


118  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

man  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  introduced  the  tariff  bill 
of  that  year,  and  it  had  no  more  ardent  supporter  in  any  section 
than  Calhoun.  The  South  cast  twenty-three  votes  in  favor  of  the 
bill.  Two  members  of  the  South  Carolina  delegation  besides 
Lowndes  and  Calhoun  supported  it  on  its  passage."''  Yet  these  lost 
their  seats  at  the  next  election,  and  Calhoun  was  charged  by  resi- 
dents of  his  district  with  having  sacrificed  his  state  to  his  presi- 
dential aspirations.^"  In  fact,  the  South  cast  thirty-four  of  the 
fifty-four  votes  against  the  measure,  the  rest  coming  from  the  com- 
mercial regions  of  the  northern  coast.  John  Randolph,  refusing  to 
be  persuaded  by  the  arguments  of  the  nationalists,  insisted  upon 
presenting  the  case  in  its  sectional  aspects.  "It  eventuates  in  this : 
whether  you,  as  a  planter  will  consent  to  be  taxed,  in  order  to  hire 
another  man  to  go  to  work  in  a  shoemaker's  shop,  or  to  set  up  a 
spinning  jenny.  For  my  part  I  will  not  agree  to  it,  even  though 
they  should,  by  way  of  return,  agree  to  be  taxed  to  help  us  plant 
tobacco ;  much  less  will  I  agree  to  pay  all,  and  receive  nothing  for 
it.  No,  I  will  buy  where  I  can  get  manufactures  cheapest,  I  will  not 
agree  to  lay  a  duty  on  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  to  encourage  ex- 
otic manufactures;  because,  after  all,  we  should  only  get  much 
worse  things  at  a  much  higher  price,  and  we,  the  cultivators  of  the 
country,  would  in  the  end  pay  for  all."  ^^^  The  case  of  the  planter 
could  hardly  be  more  concisely  stated,  and  if  he  would  not  sacri- 
fice himself  for  the  good  of  the  whole  country,  it  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  he  would  become  reconciled  to  the  protective  policy 
when  its  aim  ceased  to  be  primarily  associated  with  the  national 
defence.  In  relation  to  the  market  at  home  and  abroad  the  posi- 
tion of  the  planter  was  essentially  different  from  that  of  the  farmer. 
He  suffered  from  no  such  lack  of  market  in  Europe  as  that  which 
depressed  grain  farming.  On  the  contrary,  as  the  producer  of  a 
raw  material  which  could  not  be  grown  in  Europe,  nor  anywhere  so 
advantageously  as  in  the  rich,  cheap  lands  of  the  Gulf  Plains,  he 
enjoyed  the  control  of  a  monopolist  over  a  commodity  for  which 
the  demand  was  increasing.  While  the  countries  of  Europe,  ad- 
justing themselves  to  peace  conditions  after  the  downfall  of  Na- 
poleon, were  resuming  cultivation  and  placing  restrictions  upon 
the  food  supplies  exported  from  the  United  States,  they  were  wel- 


1"'  An'iials,  Fourteenth  Cong.,  1  sess.,   1352. 

^1"  Houston,   D.    F.,   Critical  Study  of  Nullification   in  South   Carolina,   5. 

m  Annals,  Fourteenth  Cong.,  1  seas.,  687. 


DIVERGENCE  OF  WEST  AND  SOUTH  119 

coming  southern  cotton.  Especially  in  England,  manufacturing 
methods,  a  generation  ahead  of  continental  processes,  thanks  to 
the  inventive  genius  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  to  the  fostering 
care  of  the  government,  were  expanding  the  textile  industry  so 
rapidly  as  to  tax  the  productive  capacity  of  the  westward-moving 
plantation  area  of  the  southern  states.  Under  such  conditions  the 
cotton  region  had  but  slight  interest  in  the  development  of  the 
textile  industry  at  home  as  it  would  add  inconsiderably  to  a  de- 
mand already  ample.  On  the  contrary,  the  cost  of  manufactured 
goods  consumed  by  the  staple  states  would  be  increased  by  the 
tariff,  whether  imported  or  purchased  from  the  domestic  manufac- 
turer. Nor  was  the  prosperity  of  the  cotton  belt  uniform.  Al- 
though increased  production  caused  lower  prices,  the  decline  did 
not  seriously  depress  the  grower  on  the  newer  lands,  while  many 
of  those  who  occupied  the  impoverished  or  less  fertile  soils  of  the 
coast  states  found  themselves  on  or  below  the  economic  margin. 
On  these  the  tariff  laid  a  serious  burden.  Thus  the  South,  while 
agreed  in  its  dislike  of  the  tariff,  was  divided  in  the  degree  of  its 
opposition,  the  chief  antagonism  springing  from  the  seaboard."^ 

The  growth  of  the  opposition  to  the  tariff  may  be  traced  by 
means  of  memorials  to  Congress,  resolutions  of  state  legislatures 
and  other  bodies,  and  speeches  of  southern  members  of  Congress. 
Beginning  as  an  agitation  against  the  proposed  law  of  1820,  they 
increased  in  number  and  vehemence  until  the  climax  was  reached 
in  the  attempt  at  nullification.  In  general,  they  elaborated  the 
economic  argument  which  has  been  outlined,  appealed  to  the  the- 
ory that  government  should  not  interfere  with  the  natural  course 
of  industry,  especially  where  such  interference  favors  one  interest 
at  the  expense  of  others,  attacked  the  constitutionality  of  protec- 
tion, and  pointed  out  the  dangerous  political  tendencies  of  federal 
activity.  A  few  examples  drawn  from  the  literature  of  opposition 
will  serve  to  illustrate  the  harmony  of  sentiment  which  prevailed 
from  Virginia  to  Georgia.  A  meeting  at  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in 
1820,  passed  resolutions  declaring:  "  .  .  .  .  The  idea  of  coercing  a 
people  to  manufacture  among  themselves  articles  which  they  can 


112  The  situation  of  the  tobacco,  rice,  and  sugar  planters  should  be  differentiated  from 
that  of  the  cotton  planters,  but  in  general  they  acted  together,  and  further  discrimination 
would  be  an  unnecessary  refinement  for  the  purposes  of  this  study.  For  anti-tariff  analysis  of 
the  American  System  in  the  tobacco-growing  district,  see  editorials  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer. 
Other  anti-tariff  memorials  are  printed  in  Annals,  Eighteenth  Cong.,  1  sess.,  II,  App.,  3075 
et  eeq. 


120  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

purchase  abroad  at  a  much  lower  price  than  they  can  produce 
them  at  home,  we  conceive  to  be  equally  repugnant  to  justice,  to 

policy,  and  to  the  principles  of  the  constitution The  powers 

necessary  to  execute  such  measures  we  consider  as  too  despotic 
to  have  been  delegated  by  the  American  people  to  their  Govern- 
ment, and  such  as  we  cannot  suspect  our  representatives  of  wishing 
to  assume,  by  the  instrumentality  of  inference  or  construction."  "^ 
The  Roanoke  Agricultural  Society  memorialized  Congress  asking 
to  be  let  alone.  "Identity  of  feeling  and  interest  is  the  cement  of 
our  Union.  Without  it,  the  component  parts  of  our  confederacy 
must  hang  too  loosely  together  to  withstand  the  jars  to  which  it 
must  be  exposed.  That  identity  would  be  destroyed  by  a  rigid  sys- 
tem of  prohibitory  duties.  In  the  nature  of  man,  it  cannot  be  ex- 
pected that  the  agricultural  [planting]  and  commercial  portions 
of  the  Union  could  experience  any  other  feeling  than  that  of  the 
bitterest  hatred  towards  the  manufacturing  interest,  by  whom 
they  would  be  burdened  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  to  bear ;  they 
would  cease  to  feel  as  members  of  one  great  family. 

"We  have  no  favors  to  ask  at  the  hands  of  Government.  All 
we  require  is,  to  be  left  to  ourselves,  and  to  our  own  resources. 
As  we  desire  not  to  interefere  with  others,  we  hope  and  trust  not 
to  be  interfered  with."  ^^* 

In  Congress  Mr.  Tatnall  of  Georgia  spoke  for  the  lower  South. 
"We  do  not  complain  upon  slight  occasion.  No,  sir,  the  Southern 
States  have  never  been  querulous  in  their  character.  Whenever 
the  national  benefit  has  been  the  object,  they  have  freely  yielded 
up  all  that  you  have  required But  it  is  impossible  the  South- 
ern planter  can  ever  afford  to  give  you  the  price  at  which  you  offer 
at  present  to  furnish  your  goods.  To  compel  him,  therefore,  to 
buy  at  your  market,  is  tyranny;  and  the  taking  advantage  of  his 
necessities  to  exact  from  him  a  higher  price  than  the  value  of  the 
article,  is  robbery ;  and  robbery  of  the  most  impudent  kind !  .  .  .  . 
Are  you  prepared,  by  passing  this  infernal  bill,  to  add  to  a  poverty 
which  is  already  wearing  one  portion  of  our  country  to  the  bone, 
for  the  purpose  of  supplying  the  appetites  of  a  few  pampered  na- 
bobs?   Such  a  policy  is  disgraceful  to  a  free  people.   It  is  incon- 


"»  Ibid.,  Sixteenth  Cong.,  2  sess.,  1490. 

ii<  Dated  Clarksville,  Mecklenburg  Co.,  Va.,  Dec.  7,  1820.  Ibid.,  1522.  See  petition  also 
of  delegates  of  the  United  Agricultural  Societies  of  Prince  George,  Sussex,  Surrey,  Petersburj;, 
Brunswick,  Dinwiddie,  and  Isle  of  Wight  Counties,  Va.    Ibid.,  1517. 


DIVERGENCE  OF  WEST  AND  SOUTH  121 

sistent  with  our  institutions,  and  will  be  destructive  of  our  happi- 
ness. And  is  it  thought  that  we  will  tamely  submit  to  this  treat- 
ment? No,  sir,  we  cannot.  By  Heaven,  sir,  we  will  not!  .  .  .  ."  "^ 
A  memorial  of  a  meeting  of  citizens  of  Charleston  set  forth  the 
objections  of  South  Carolinians  as  held  in  1820.  "The  great  plea 
for  taxation  advanced  in  this  case  is,  that  domestic  manufactures 
will  make  us  independent  of  foreign  nations.  This  is  certainly  im- 
portant in  itself ;  but,  when  advanced  as  a  ground  for  forcing  arti- 
ficially the  production  of  everything  we  want,  the  plea  is  every 

way  fallacious If,  under  a  new  system,  the  surplus  labor  of 

an  individual  will  procure  for  him  but  one-half  of  the  articles  of 
consumption  which  he  has  hitherto  been  accustomed  to  receive  for 
the  same  labor,  what  compensation  will  it  be  to  him  to  know  that 
this  diminished  supply  was  produced  in  his  own  country,  or  even 
on  his  own  farm?  ....  How  much  more  simple  and  wise  is  it  for 
each  nation  to  raise  or  manufacture  those  articles  which  are  most 
congenial  to  its  soil  and  to  the  habit  of  the  people,  and  exchange 
its  superfluous  productions  for  the  productions  of  other  climates 

and  other  conditions  of  society Neither  should  it  be  forgotten 

how  hostile  to  the  general  spirit  of  our  Constitution  is  every  sys- 
tem of  restriction,  of  monopoly,  or  particular  privileges " 

The  impossibility  of  developing  manufactures  within  the  state  is 
then  mentioned  to  explain  why  it  must  continue  to  devote  itself 
to  planting,  and  the  effects  of  the  protective  system  upon  the 
planter  are  analyzed.   "It  is,  therefore,  peculiarly  our  interest  that 

our  interchange  with  the  world  should  be  free It  is  equally 

our  interest  that  the  articles  we  are  compelled  to  consume  should 
be  procured  on  the  most  advantageous  terms."  ""^^  Four  years  later 
a  committee  of  Charleston  citizens  renewed  the  protest  of  1820, 
viewing  with  alarm  the  tendency  towards  a  permanent  system 
of  protectionism.  The  state  was  now  feeling  the  strain  of  compe- 
tition with  the  new  cotton  lands,  with  low  prices  prevailing  in 
the  European  market.  While  the  former  objections  still  held,  the 
former  prosperity  was  gone.  While  the  citizens  of  the  State  might 
formerly  have  regarded  protective  measures,  if  not  without  dis- 
approbation, at  least  without  dismay,  and  have  acquiesced  with- 
out much  murmuring,  certainly  without  violent  resistance,  matters 
now  stood  very  differently,  owing  to  the  glut  of  cotton  in  the 


"■5  Jan.  30,  1823.    Ibid.,  Seventeenth  Cong.,  2  sess.,   756. 
119  Ibid.,  Sixteenth  Cong.,  2  sess.,  1505. 


122  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

European  market  and  the  low  price.  "It  is  manifest  that  the 
extraordinary  prosperity  which  South  Carolina,  in  common  wifh 
the  other  Southern  States,  enjoyed  some  years  ago,  is  gone  for- 
ever, and  it  will  require  all  the  skill  and  industry  of  our  agricul- 
turists, in  future,  to  maintain  their  place  in  the  market,  even  at 
the  most  reduced  prices  of  produce."  They  regarded  the  occasion 
as  so  alarming  as  to  call  for  an  emphatic  declaration  that  the  pro- 
posed tariff  measure  violated  the  spirit  of  the  constitution,  and 
proceeded  to  discuss  the  nature  of  the  Union  and  the  powers  of 
Congress  under  the  constitution,  at  some  length. ^^^ 

In  the  declining  price  of  cotton  the  West  found  reason  to  hope 
that  the  South  might  make  common  cause  in  support  of  the  Ameri- 
can System,  in  order  to  create  a  home  demand.  "Late  occurrences 
in  the  European  market  induce  us  to  believe  our  plans  will  not  be 
so  strenuously  opposed  in  the  southern  section  of  our  country," 
remarked  a  western  paper  in  1819.  "The  price  of  their  produce 
must  continue  to  fall,  and  it  will  soon  be  their  interest  to  encour- 
age a  consumption  of  the  raw  material  at  home "  ^^^  The  two 

great  obstacles  which  prevented  Congress  from  giving  proper  sup- 
port to  manufactures,  according  to  Matthew  Lyon,  addressing  the 
Kentucky  Reporter,  were  the  influence  of  the  commercial  region 
on  the  northeast  coast,  and  the  low  estimate  placed  by  the  South 
on  domestic  manufactures.  "The  people  [of  the  South]  are  afraid 
if  domestic  manufactures  were  encouraged  by  prohibitive  or  pro- 
tecting duties,  they  would  have  to  give  a  cent  or  two  a  yard  more 
for  cloth  manufactured  in  New  England  ....  than  they  now  do 
for  cloth  manufactured  in  Old  England,  and  they  would  begrudge 
it,  although  the  New  England  cloth  should  be  four  cents  a  yard 
the  best — and  although  the  time  cannot  be  far  distant  when  the 
principal  market  for  their  cotton  must  be  derived  from  Ameri- 
can manufacture "  ^"    Gloomy  paragraphs  in  the  southern 

press  contributed  to  this  illusory  hope.  "Cotton,  our  staple  article 
of  export,"  the  Milledgeville  (Ga.)  Journal  is  quoted  as  saying, 
"is  daily  declining  in  price,  and  will,  in  a  short  time  not  be  worth 
the  cultivation.  The  consumption  of  cotton  manufactures  has 
already  arrived  at  its  utmost  extent;  but  the  production  of  the  ar- 
ticle itself  may  be  increased  a  thousand  fold.     This  circumstance 


11'  Ibid.,  Eighteenth  Cong.,   1  sess.,  App.,  II,  3075. 

118  Pittsburg  Gazette,   quoted  by  Supporter,   May   12,   1819. 

1X9  Quoted  by  SupporUr,  Oct.  6,  1819. 


DIVERGENCE  OF  WEST  AND  SOUTH  123 

will  keep  down  our  market  generally  ....  but  there  is  another  cause 
that  will  operate  on  the  market  of  the  southern  states.  The  Eng- 
lish are  encouraging  its  cultivation  in  their  East  India  colonies 
judiciously  and  extensively.  It  is  true  it  is  not  so  good  as  ours, 
but  the  manufacturers  say  it  is  good  enough  for  their  purposes. 
Hence  our  trade  in  it  will  be  destroyed  just  as  certain  as  our  indigo 
trade  was  destroyed  in  the  year  1779  by  the  same  policy."  ^^^  "The 
cotton  planters  of  the  southern  states  seem  to  have  great  antipathy 
to  domestic  manufactures,"  says  the  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Adver- 
tiser, "lest  their  encouragement  should  operate  against  commerce, 
and  thereby  affront  their  customers  the  English.  But  we  should 
think  that  they  ought  to  be  the  first  that  would  encourage  them, 
in  order  to  procure  customers  at  home  for  their  produce  that  is 
now  become  a  mere  drug  in  the  British  market.  We  should  sup- 
pose that  when  upland  cotton  has  been  reduced  to  about  9  cents 
per  lb.,  after  all  the  expense  of  freight  and  insurance —  that  they 
might  be  among  the  first  to  call  out  for  encouragement  for  domes- 
tic manufactures  in  order  to  find  customers  for  that  redundancy 
of  cotton  which  has  so  powerfully  operated  to  bring  down  the 
price.  .  .  ."  121 

The  spread  of  cotton  culture  westward  expanded  the  market 
for  the  food  products  of  the  farms  of  the  Northwest,  and  the  grow- 
ing intercourse  between  that  section  and  the  South  fostered  the 
faith  of  the  former  in  the  practicability  of  the  sectional  reciprocity 
aimed  at  by  the  American  System.^^^  -q^i  iy^q  South  persisted  in 
its  way  of  thinking.  The  milder  tone  of  the  more  prosperous  state 
of  Alabama,  but  at  the  same  time  the  clear  perception  by  the  south- 
erners of  the  sectional  alignment  on  the  tariff  question,  is  shown  by 
the  speech  of  Owen  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  the  bill  of 
1824 :  "He  summed  up  the  policy  of  the  bill  as  amounting  to  this, 
that  the  East  and  the  West  must  co-operate,  and  the  South  must 
submit  and  contribute.    He  reprobated  this  policy  as  not  calculated 


12"  Scioto  Telegraph,  July  7,  1821.  Cf.  statements  in  same  article  concerning  conditions 
as  set  forth  by  the  Montgomery  Republican. 

1=1  January  27,  1823. 

122  "The  state  of  North  Carolina,  heretofore  noted  for  the  quality  and  excellence  of  its 
Pork,  sent  chiefly  to  the  Virginia  markets,  is  now  indebted  for  large  supplies  of  this  article  to 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  cultivation  of  cotton  in  this  state  has  produced  this  new  order 
of  things."  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser,  Jan.  13,  1823,  quoting  North  Carolina  Register. 
Cf.  Callender,  "Early  Transportation  and  Banking  Enterprises,"  126  ;  also  Callender,  Econo7nio 
History,  290  et  acq. 


124  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  Union."  ^"  The  territory  adversely  af- 
fected was  defined  by  Randolph  in  the  course  of  this  debate.  "Here 
is  a  district  of  country  extending  from  the  Patapsco  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  from  the  Allegany  [mountains]  to  the  Atlantic,  a  dis- 
trict which  ....  raised  five-sixths  of  all  the  exports  of  this  country 
that  are  of  home  growth  ....  I  bless  God  that,  in  this  insulted, 
oppressed,  and  outraged  region,  we  are,  as  to  our  counsels  in  re- 
gard to  this  measure,  but  as  one  man,  that  there  exists  on  the  sub- 
ject but  one  feeling  and  one  interest."  ^^*  His  further  words  show 
the  growing  violence  of  the  opposition.  "We  are  proscribed,  and 
put  to  the  ban ;  and  if  we  do  not  feel,  and  feeling  do  not  act,  we  are 
bastards  to  those  fathers  who  achieved  the  Revolution ;  then  shall 
we  deserve  to  make  our  bricks  without  straw  ....  I  do  not  stop 
here,  sir,  to  argue  about  the  constitutionality  of  this  bill  ....  I 
have  no  faith  in  parchment  ....  I  have  faith  in  the  power  of  that 
Commonwealth,  of  which  I  am  an  unworthy  son,  in  the  power  of 
those  Carolinas,  and  of  that  Georgia  ....  which  went  with  us 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  in  the  war  of  our  in- 
dependence. .  .  ."  ^-^ 

The  southern  seaboard  developed  likewise  an  opposition  to  the 
other  important  feature  of  the  American  System,  that  is,  the 
policy  of  national  aid  to  internal  improvements.  Before  the  spread 
of  the  plantation  system  into  the  interior  of  the  South  Atlantic 
states,  considerable  interest  had  been  displayed  in  local  roads  and 
canals  to  afford  access  for  the  farmers  of  the  interior  to  the  sea- 
port towns.  Before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Santee 
canal,  by  connecting  Charleston  with  the  river  which  gave  the  canal 
its  name,  had  shortened  the  distance  between  the  inland  farms  and 
the  city,  affording  the  one  a  readier  market  and  the  other  cheaper 
supplies.  The  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  and  James  River  Canal  pro- 
jects were  likewise  designed  to  tap  the  uplands  and  ultimately  the 
Ohio  Valley.^-"  But  while  Baltimore  held  its  own  with  Philadel- 
phia for  a  time,  the  southern  states  soon  fell  hopelessly  behind  the 
northern  in  the  competition  for  the  trade  of  the  transalleghany 


^•"3  Annals,  Eighteenth  Cong.,   1   sess.,  I,   1550. 

i=<  Ibid.,  II,  2360. 

^"''  Ibid.  A  very  temperate  criticism  of  the  protective  policy,  from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
Old  School  Republican,  is  made  by  Madison  in  a  letter  to  Clay,  dated  April  24,  1824,  written 
in  acknowledgment  of  a  copy  of  the  latter's  speech  on  the  tariff  of  1824.  Cited  above,  99, 
/.  n.  52. 

i2«  Phillips,  U.  B.,  Transportation  in  the  Eastern  Cotton  Belt,   15,   16. 


DIVERGENCE  OF  WEST  AND  SOUTH  125 

region.  The  higher  mountains  precluded  all  possibility  of  canal 
connection,  and  not  until  the  advent  of  the  railroad  were  the  con- 
ditions north  and  south  somewhat  equalized.  Meantime,  with  the 
advance  of  staple  growing  in  the  interior  interest  even  in  the  local 
roads  and  canals  declined  in  the  eastern  cotton  belt.  The  market- 
ing of  cotton  could  be  done  when  teams  were  idle,  for  the  crop  did 
not  suffer  from  long  hauls  over  poor  roads.  The  planters  con- 
sidered the  loss  of  time  less  serious  than  the  cost  of  toll  on  the  turn- 
pikes, and  the  roads  constructed  at  an  earlier  date  fell  into  disuse 
during  the  twenties.^"  The  western  South  showed  more  interest 
in  the  proposals  of  national  turnpikes  and  improvements  in  water 
courses,  and  as  late  as  1824  Governor  Troup  of  Georgia  wrote  to 
President  Monroe  urging  the  claim  of  his  state  to  a  share  of  the 
benefit  under  the  survey  act,  and  suggesting  canals  to  connect  the 
Savannah  with  the  Tennessee  and  the  St.  Marys  with  the  Su- 
wanee.^-^  Tennessee  was  the  scene  of  similar  agitation. ^-^  In 
this  matter  as  in  the  tariff  question,  the  South  was  not  wholly 
united,  but  as  the  association  of  the  two  policies  in  the  American 
System  became  clear,  the  seaboard,  lacking  any  positive  interest 
to  enlist  its  support  for  the  policy  of  improvements,  placed  both 
equally  under  the  ban  of  its  disapprobation. 

C-Jt  is  clear  to  the  historian  that  by  1824  the  basis  of  the  old 
party  system  was  gone.  The  Federalist  organization,  quitting  the 
field  in  1816,  had  left  the  Republicans  in  undisputed  possession. 
But  as  the  growth  of  the  West  had  destroyed  the  one,  so  now  it  had 
in  turn  destroyed  the  other.  The  Republicans  retained,  it  is  true, 
the  old  party  name  and  the  semblance  of  an  organization.  But 
the  two  geographical  sections  which  shared  the  name  were  as  wide- 


ly/biu,  12. 

128  Phillips,  U.  B.,  Georgia  and  State  Rights,  114.  The  western  portion  of  the  tobacco 
states  showed  considerable  interest  in  improved  means  of  communication  with  the  coast.  See 
petition  of  Virginians  asking  co-operation  of  the  federal  government  in  the  James  River  Canal 
project,  Niles  Register,  XIII,  125.  Politically  this  portion  of  Virginia,  so  long  in  conflict  with 
the  tidewater,  inclined  strongly  to  affiliate  with  the  Ohio  Valley,  as  did  also  western  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York.  This  fact  gave  Clay  a  real  basis  for  expecting  support  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1824.  For  the  same  reason  Virginia  was  divided  somewhat  in  its  attitude  towards 
the  Adams  administration.  Ambler,  Sectionalism,  and  Ritchie.  As  late  as  1832,  the  Lynchburg 
Virginian,  discussing  "the  constant  migration  to  the  great  West  of  our  most  substantial  citi- 
zens ....  and  the  declension  of  our  business,"  remarked:  "It  is  idle  to  talk  of  the  blasting 
effects  of  the  Tariff  system.  We  suffer  most  from  our  failure  to  keep  pace  in  building  inter- 
nal improvements."  Commons,  John  R.,  et  al.,  A  Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial 
Society,  II,  196-197.  The  reactionary  Virginian  party  opposed  the  federal  policy  of  internal 
improvements  vehemently.     See  Ames,  State   Documents,   140-143. 

12B  See  above,  103,  /.  n.  68;  104,  /.  n.  71. 


126  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

ly  separated  as  the  poles  in  their  views  of  national  policy,  in  their 
votes  on  specific  measures,  and  in  their  interpretation  of  the  con- 
stitution."" They  knew  that  they  were  at  odds ;  nothing  remained 
of  the  party,  indeed,  but  the  name."^  The  decade  following  the 
War  of  1812  was,  in  short,  a  period  of  disintegration  for  both  of 
the  old  parties,  during  which  their  several  elements,  with  the  addi- 
tion of  the  elements  contributed  by  the  growing  West,  were  poured 
into  the  melting  pot  to  emerge  in  new  forms  and  combinations.  \ 

!»«  Cf.  Ambler,  Ritchie.  82-83. 

131  "How  long  shall  we  be  compelled  to  suffer  by  that  contracted  view  of  our  public  in- 
terests, which  can  embrace  only  the  growth  of  cotton  and  tobacco,  and  the  necessary  means 
to  provide  for  these  articles,  a  profitable  foreign  market,  we  pretend  not  to  say."  National 
Republican  and  Ohio  Political  Register,  March  4,  1823. 

"The  question  is  not  now  whether  this  candidate  or  that  is  a  democrat  or  a  federalist, 
but  whether  he  is  a  friend  or  an  opponent  to  domestic  industry  and  internal  improvements." 
Western  Herald,  quoted  in  Supporter,  Aug.  2,   1823. 


CHAPTER  V 
TENDENCIES  TOWARDS  REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES 

The  main  task  for  which  this  study  was  undertaken  has  now 
been  completed ;  that  is,  to  show  that  both  the  Federalist  and  Re- 
publican parties,  based  on  conditions  connected  with  the  geo^ 
graphical  development  of  the  United  States  up  to  the  beginning  of 
the  constitutional  period,  were  destroyed  before  1825  in  conse- 
quence of  the  changes  incident  to  further  geographical  develop- 
ment. But  the  decade  ending  in  1825  was  a  period  of  party  re- 
formation as  well  as  disintegration,  and  by  the  close  of  it  the  new 
party  alignment  was  becoming  fairly  distinct.  We  can  not  fitly  end 
our  study,  therefore,  without  a  survey  of  the  chief  forces  which 
shaped  the  new  parties. 

It  seemed  for  a  time  that  the  contest  over  the  admission  of 
Missouri  might  lead  to  a  new  organization  of  parties  on  the  basis 
of  the  slavery  issue.^  The  opposition  to  the  admission  of  the  new 
state  sprang  from  two  sources.  The  distrust  of  the  West  which 
the  Federalists  had  shown  survived  the  party  and,  when  the  Miss- 
ouri question  arose,  still  appreciably  affected  portions  of  the  East ;' 
the  growing  dislike  of  slavery  affected  the  whole  Northwest  as  well 
as  the  East,  and  tended  to  unite  the  Republicans  of  that  region 
with  the  former  Federalists  in  common  antagonism  to  the  spread 
of  the  institution. 

Most  prominent  among  the  opponents  of  the  new  state  was 
Rufus  King,  at  this  time  senator  from  New  York.  His  speech  of 
February,   1819,^  became  the  arsenal  from   which   congressmen, 


1  Hockett,  H.  C,  "Rufus  King  and  the  Missouri  Compromise,"  in  Missouri  Historical 
Review,  II,  211-220. 

-  See  above,  67,  /.  n.  63  ;  75,  /.  n.  93.  The  tone  in  which  easterners  commonly  referred 
to  the  people  of  the  West  is  indicated  by  the  following :  "How  do  the  wild  men  of  the  west 
relish  a  treaty  that  ....  does  not  provide  for  the  extinction  of  the  Indians  and  the  assump- 
tion of  the  'uppermost'  Canadas?"  James  Emott  to  Rufus  King,  Feb.  19,  1815.  King,  Life 
of  King,  V,  472.    [Italics  mine.] 

"A  gentleman  of  intelligence  informs  us,  that  a  most  singular  and  sudden  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  cities  with  respect  to  the  western  country 
[because  of  the  pressure  of  hard  times,  which  turned  the  thoughts  of  many  towards  the  West.] 
The  name  but  lately  was  associated  with  everything  disagreeable  and  uncomfortable ;  it  was 
used  in  nurseries  for  the  purpose  of  frightening  children."  [Italics  mine.]  Supporter,  May  12, 
1819,  quoting  Pittsburg  Gazette. 

Cf.  the  description  of  the  emigrants  and  their  motives,  in  Dwight's  Travels,  II,  468 
et  Beq. 

*  NUes  Register,  Dec.  4,  1819. 

127 


128  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

newspaper  writers,  and  other  agitators  drew  their  arguments  dur- 
ing the  whole  contest.  So  marked  was  the  effect  of  the  movement 
in  uniting  the  Federalists  and  Republicans  throughout  the  North 
and  West,  and  so  central  a  figure  was  King,  that  many  persons  be- 
lieved, with  John  Quincy  Adams,  that  King  had  set  on  foot  a  con- 
cert of  measures  which  should  form  the  basis  of  a  new  alignment 
of  parties.*  This  opinion  was  supported  by  the  stress  which  King 
placed  upon  the  injustice  of  extending  the  political  power  of  slav- 
ery, which  seemed  to  outweigh  in  his  mind  its  moral  evils.  Slave 
representation,  he  pointed  out  in  his  senate  speech,  already  gave 
the  southern  states  twenty  representatives  and  twenty  presidential 
electors  more  than  their  white  population  would  entitle  them  to. 
The  constitutional  provision  for  such  representation  was  an  an- 
cient settlement  which  faith  and  honor  were  bound  not  to  disturb. 
But  it  was  a  settlement  between  the  thirteen  original  states,  and 
its  extension  to  the  new  states  which  Congress  might  now  be  willing 
to  admit  would  be  unjust  and  odious.  The  states  whose  power 
would  be  abridged  could  not  be  expected  to  consent  to  it.  The  right 
of  Congress  to  provide  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery  in  Mis- 
souri he  found  to  be  implied  in  the  constitutional  provision  that 
"Congress  may  admit  new  states." 

The  antecedents  of  King's  views  are  easily  recognized.  In  the 
denunciation  of  the  extension  of  southern  power  through  the  ad- 
mission of  new  states  in  the  West,  we  encounter  again  the  old  preju- 
dice shown  by  Federalists  in  the  constitutional  convention,  and  at 
the  time  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  and  of  the  admission  of  the 
State  of  Louisiana.  In  the  constitutional  argument,  too,  we  find 
an  attempt  to  give  to  that  instrument  an  interpretation  according 
with  the  wishes  of  Gouverneur  Morris  and  his  associates,  of  whom 
King  was  one,  when  they  framed  the  clause  to  which  appeal  was 
now  made.'^  Notwithstanding  the  well-nigh  universal  favor  with 
which  the  anti-Missouri  program  met  for  awhile  in  the  North,  the 
country  presently  recognized  the  association  of  these  doctrines 
with  Federalism.  Nor  did  the  fact  that  King  had  been  a  leader 
of  that  party  and  the  recipient  of  the  last  electoral  votes  which  it 
cast,  serve  as  a  disguise  for  this  association.  The  Republicans 
therefore  grew  suspicious,  deeming  the  agitation  a  "federalist 
movement,  accruing  to  the  benefit  of  that  party,"  and  believing 


*  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI,  529. 
^  See  above,  46-50,  69-71,  73- 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  129 

that  King  hoped  to  organize  a  sectional  party  on  anti-slavery  prin- 
ciples, under  Federalist  leadership,  and  strong  enough  to  dominate 
the  Union.*'  That  such  was  his  conscious  purpose  is  unproven  and 
unlikely,  but  the  belief  seems  to  have  caused  a  defection  of  both 
Republicans  and  Federalists  from  the  anti-Missouri  phalanx;^  and 
the  vote  of  northern  members  for  the  compromise  may  find  its  ex- 
planation in  this  way.  There  is  even  evidence  that  President  Mon- 
roe was  induced  to  forego  his  contemplated  veto  of  the  compromise 
bill,  at  the  risk  of  forfeiting  the  endorsement  of  Virginia  for  a  sec- 
ond term  as  president,  by  a  conviction  that  the  compromise  would 
defeat  the  machinations  of  King.®  'tatvv,  «/hAv-^'-^--'^ 

Here,  then,  was  a  question-,  originating  iirthd  process  of  west- 
ward expansion,  which  shows  a  new  tendency —  a  tendency  for  the 
Northwest  to  sever  its  alliance  with  the  Old  South  and  to  form  a 
connection  with  that  eastern  section  which  had  formerly  been  the 
seat  of  antagonism  to  it.  With  the  progress  of  the  frontier,  in 
short,  the  Northeast  was  forgetting  its  earlier  antipathy  to  the 
Ohio  Valley,  and  stretching  out  its  hands  to  it  in  common  hatred  of 
the  type  of  institution  which  was  appearing  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
territory  to  which  the  Ordinance  of  1787  applied.^  South  as  well 
as  north  of  the  river,  besides,  the  course  of  western  economic  de- 
velopment, which  had  brought  it  into  conflict  with  the  planting 
region,  had  given  it  affinity  for  the  new  industrialism  of  the  North- 
east. 'The  West,"  said  the  Western  Herald  in  1823,  "has  no  in- 
terest distinct  from  the  interest  of  the  grain  growing  and  manu- 
facturing states  to  the  east."  ^°  The  stage  was  set  for  a  political 
revolution. 


*  Benton,  Thomas  H.,  Thirty  Ye-irs'  View,  I,  10.  "Let  Missouri  continue  her  efforts 
....  and  a  reaction  may  be  produced  which  will  prostrate  those  Hartford  Convention  men 
who  now  predominate  in  the  north,  and  give  the  victory  to  the  friends  of  the  union  and  to 
the  republicans  of  the  Jeffersonian  school."  [Italics  mine.]  St.  Louis  Enquirer,  quoted  in 
Niles  Register.  XVUl,  371    (Feb.   3,   1821). 

''  Gore  to  King,  Jan.  28,  1820,  King,  Life  of  King.  VI,  259. 

^  Congressional  Globe,  Thirtieth  Cong.,  2  sess.,  App.,  63-67.  See  also  Barbour  Corre- 
spondence, in  William  &  Mary  College  Quarterly,   X,   5-24.    Cf.   Ambler,  Ritchie,   78-79. 

'  "I  shall  not  be  at  all  surprised   if  the  Mo.   affr.   shd.   strew   the  seeds   of  a   new   state 

of  things  agt.  the  next  4   yrs.  after  Mr.   Monroe's  next  term "     R.   H.   Goldsborough,   a 

Maryland  Federalist,  wrote  to  King,  March  13,  1820.  King,  Life  of  King,  VI,  307.  "It  does 
appear  to  me  that  the  country  has  not  so  soon  recovered  from  the  Missouri  question,  and  that 
the  Eastern  States,  if  they  find  the  South  and  West  too  strong,  will  be  inclined  to  cry  out 
'No  Slavery,'  and  by  these  means  compel  Ohio  and  the  Western  free  states  to  abandon  their 
choice  [Clay  for  president]  and  unite  in  this  policy."  Edward  King  to  Rufus  King,  Jan.  23, 
1823.    Ibid.,  497, 

10  March    1. 


130  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

The  adoption  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  practically  removed 
the  slavery  issue  as  a  factor  in  the  reshaping  of  parties,  although 
some  echoes  of  it  were  heard  during  the  campaign  of  1824,  leaving 
the  chief  role  in  the  readjustment  of  the  political  relations  of  sec- 
tions to  be  played  by  economic  questions.  Only  on  the  surface  was 
the  campaign  of  1824  a  personal  contest  among  men  holding  "com- 
mon Republican  principles."  The  persistence  of  the  old  party 
name  has  served  to  disguise  the  wide  divergence  in  the  views  of  the 
candidates,  and  the  colorless  character  of  the  statements  made  on 
behalf  of  some  of  them  has  tended  the  same  way.  In  reality  such 
statements  usually  emanated  from  the  prudence  which  perceived 
the  antagonism  of  sectional  interests  and  knew  that  clean-cut  pro- 
nouncements would  destroy  the  chance  of  general  support.  It  was 
necessary,  so  far  as  possible,  to  make  each  candidate  acceptable 
everywhere,  which  really  meant  that  the  voters  in  each  section 
must  be  satisfied  that  the  candidate  was  friendly  to  the  interests 
of  that  section. 

The  period  had  arrived  when  the  West  was  ready  to  assert 
itself.  Keenly  conscious  of  its  interests  and  its  strength,  it  laid 
claim  to  the  highest  office  in  the  land,  and  to  a  determining  influ- 
ence in  shaping  the  national  policies.  The  growth  of  the  West, 
having  proven  the  decisive  factor  in  sapping  the  foundation  of  the 
old  parties,  was  now  to  assert  an  equally  important  influence  on 
the  evolution  of  the  new. 

For  a  glimpse  at  the  formative  influence  of  the  section  in  this 
respect  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  take  Ohio.  Ohio  had  attained 
fourth  place  among  the  states  of  the  Union,  and  was  first  in  the 
West.  Having  no  candidate  of  its  own,  as  did  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee,  its  vote  represents  a  more  impartial  judgment  than  that 
of  either  of  these;  while  the  newer  states,  just  because  they  were 
new,  played  a  relatively  unimportant  part  in  this  election.  The 
mixed  character  of  the  population  of  Ohio,  moreover,  which  was 
far  more  representative  of  the  several  older  regions  than  was  the 
case  in  either  of  the  neighboring  states,  made  it  a  fair  battle- 
ground for  all  of  the  candidates,  and  gave  its  attitude  toward  their 
respective  claims  unique  significance." 


11  In  collecting  material  on  Ohio,  I  have  been  aided  by  the  work  of  students  in  my 
graduate  seminar.  I  am  especially  indebted  to  Mr.  E.  H.  Roseboom,  scholar  in  American  His- 
tory in  Ohio  State  University,  1915-1916,  who  made,  under  my  direction,  a  study  of  Ohio  in  the 
Presidential  Campaign  of  1824,  in  connection  with  his  candidacy  for  the  degree  of  M.  A.  This 
study  appears  in  Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical  Quarterly,  XXVI,   153-224. 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  131 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  state  campaign  the  slavery  question 
seemed  likely  to  be  again  prominent/-  Sentiment  in  Ohio  had  been 
practically  united  in  opposition  to  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a 
slave  state,  and  to  the  end  of  the  campaign  many  persons  felt  that 
slavery  should  be  regarded  as  the  paramount  issue.  In  general, 
however,  it  was  felt  that  the  Missouri  question  should  be  considered 
as  settled,  and  many  of  those  who  had  been  most  ardent  in  their 
wish  to  prolong  the  fight  against  slavery  yielded  to  the  view  that 
economic  interests  should  be  ranked  first.^^  As  to  what  were  the  eco- 
nomic interests  of  the  West  there  was  no  disagreement.^*  It  is 
equally  clear  that  the  people  regarded  the  election  as  an  oppor- 


1-  Cf.  Charles  Hammond's  expectation  concerning  the  influence  of  the  Missouri  question : 
"A  new  state  of  parties  must  grow  out  of  it.  Give  me  a  Northern  President,  whether  John 
Quincy  Adams  or  De  Witt  Clinton,  or  anybody  else,  rather  than  that  things  should  remain 
as  they  are."  Smith,  W.  H.,  Charles  Hammond  and  his  Relations  to  Henry  Clay  and  John 
Quincy  Adams,  32.  See  also  letter  of  Edward  King  to  his  father:  "If  the  Missouri  question 
should  present  itself,  in  the  contest,  Ohio  probably  would  leave  her  favorite  [Clay]  and  sup- 
port Mr.   Adams."    November,    1822.     King,  Life  of  King,   VI,    487. 

15  "The  ignis  fatuus  'western  interest,'  is  like  to  absorb  every  sound  moral  and  political 
consideration."    Ohio  Monitor,  quoted  by  Delaware  Patron,  Sept.   16,  1823. 

James  Wilson,  editor  of  the  TVesfern  Herald  and  Steubenville  Gazette,  opposed  Clay  on 
anti-slavery  grounds  until  it  became  evident  that  the  slavery  issue  was  subordinate  to  economic 
questions.  Then  he  turned  to  Clay.  Western  Herald,  issues  March  1  and  22,  1823,  and  April 
24,  1824.  Clay  himself  believed  in  February,  1824,  that  Ohio  would  vote  for  "no  man  residing 
in  a  slave  state  but  me,  and  they  vote  for  me  because  of  other  and  chiefly  local  considerations." 
Letter  to  Francis  Brooke.    Colton,  Life  of  Clay,  IV,  86. 

1*  "It  will  be  recollected  that  the  promotion  of  domestic  measures  is  the  ground  we  as- 
sume as  the  criterion  of  our  choice.  Those  candidates  who  are  unfavorable,  or  not  known  to 
be  favorable  to  these  measures  we  throw  out  of  the  question "    Liberty  Hall,  Nov.  14,  1823. 

"So  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  learn  the  sentiments  of  the  editors  of  this  state,  we 
believe,  however  they  may  differ  on  other  subjects,  that  they  pretty  generally  agree  in  this 
one  important  point: — that  we  ought  to  support  that  man  for  the  Presidency,  other  things 
being  equal,  who  will  most  effectually  encourage  domestic  manufactures  and  internal  improve- 
ments."   Ibid.,  Jan.  6,   1824. 

Friendliness  to  domestic  industry  and  internal  improvements  "is  a  sine  qua  non- — an 
article  of  faith,  to  which  every  political  aspirant  must  subscribe,  before  he  can  expect  to  be 
honored  with  their   [Ohio  voters']   suffrages."    Supporter,  March  25,   1824. 

"Mr.  Clay  will  in  all  probability  ....  be  the  first  choice  of  Ohio ;  but  in  case  it  shall 
be  found  that  he  cannot  become  one  of  the  three  highest  in  votes,  it  will  become  our  duty  .... 
to  turn  our  attention  to  the  candidate  who  shall  come  the  ne.xt  nearest  to  our  standard  in 
point  of  qualification.  This  standard  is — (1)  Encouragement  to  domestic  industry.  (2)  Inter- 
nal improvements,  by  roads  and  canals.  (3)  Inflexible  integrity."  Western  Herald.  The 
Herald  had  favored  making  slavei-y  the  chief  issue.    See  above,  f.  n.  13. 

In  announcing  the  founding  of  a  new  paper,  The  Ohio  Journal,  the  publishers  disavow 
any  intention  of  establishing  a  party  organ,  but  to  "prevent  misapprehension  of  our  senti- 
ments and  of  the  course  we  intend  to  pursue  [we]  declare  ourselves  desirous  of  seeing  a  man 
elected  whose  policy  will  cause  us  as  a  nation  to  be  respected  abroad  and  will  foster  at  home 
those  two  great  main  stays  of  a  free  and  independent  people — Domestic  Manufactures  and 
Internal   Improvements."    Hamilton  Intelligencer  and  Advertiser,   Aug.    16,    1824. 

See  similar  announcement  of  the   Western  Statesman,  in  Supporter,  Dec.  20,   1824. 


132  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

tunity  to  translate  their  economic  views  into  political  action.^^ 
Monroe's  vetoes  of  measures  which  would  have  benefited  the  west- 
ern country  led  to  insistence  upon  the  election  of  an  executive  of 
broader  constitutional  views  and  keener  sympathy  with  the  grow- 
ing portion  of  the  Union. ^^ 

To  the  several  candidates  Ohio  voters  applied  the  two  tests 
mentioned,  namely,  attitude  on  the  question  of  slavery  and  towards 
the  protective  tariff  and  internal  improvements  which  together 
constituted  the  American  System.  Calhoun  enjoyed  a  degree  of 
popularity  because  of  his  early  record,  although  his  fidelity  to  his 
former  views  was  brought  under  suspicion  by  the  growing  oppo- 
sition of  South  Carolina  to  the  tariff.^^  At  best,  however,  he  was 
hopelessly  overshadowed,  as  an  advocate  of  the  American  System, 
by  Clay,  and  from  the  moment  that  he  lost  the  support  bf  Pennsyl- 
vania for  the  first  place  his  cause  was  dead  in  Ohio.  The  chief 
newspaper  which  had  supported  him  transferred  its  influence  to 
Clay,  because  of  his  relation  to  the  interests  of  the  section,^^  while 
the  friends  of  Jackson  endorsed  Calhoun  for  the  vice  presidency 
on  the  ground  of  his  friendliness  to  the  tariff  and  internal  improve- 
ments.^^ The  liking  for  Calhoun  in  Ohio,  in  short,  was  due  to  the 
belief  that  he  favored  the  American  System. 

Crawford,  with  the  support  of  the  congressional  caucus,  rep- 
resented the  remnants  of  the  democratic  organization  and  depended 
rather  upon  the  appeal  made  by  the  "regularity"  of  his  candidacy 
than  upon  an  avowal  of  his  principles.  His  record  did  not  speak 
unmistakably  of  his  attitude  on  the  questions  of  the  day,  as  did 
those  of  Calhoun  and  Clay,  and  it  seemed  likely  that  his  views 
accorded  with  those  of  the  Old  South  where  his  strength  centered. 
These  facts  were  sufficient  to  condemn  him  in  Ohio,  for  the  state 


16  "We  indulge  a  hope  that  the  proceedings  of  the  present  congress  [in  defeating  the 
tariff  bill]  will  awaken  a  spirit  of  universal  inquiry  among  the  people,  and  produce  such  a 
change  in  the  federal  administration  as  will  insure  to  it  that  wisdom  which  can  discern  the 
necessities  of  the   country."    National   Republican   and   Ohio   Political   Register,   March   4,    1823. 

^''  "There  is  a  party  of  politicians  at  Washington,  whose  consciences  are  so  tender,  or 
whose  minds  are  so  contracted,  that  no  general  system  of  internal  improvements  can  be  an- 
ticipated, from  the  councils  of  the  nation,  until  there  is  a  radical  change  in  the  Executive 
departments."    Ibid.,  July  23,   1823. 

^''  Supporter,  Feb.  26,  1824.  At  this  time  Calhoun's  views  were  still  fairly  consistent 
with  his  earlier  opinions.  Cf.  speech  at  Abbeville,  May  27,  1825  ;  Niles  Register,  XXVIII,  266. 
Two  years  later  his  correspondence  begins  to  betray  the  change  which  carried  him  into  the 
southern  party  and  made  him  the  chief  of  the  nullifiers.    See  below,   143,  /.  n.  58. 

^*  Liberty  Hall  and  Cincinnati  Gazette. 

^^  Address  of  the  Jackson  State  Committee,  September,  1824.  Hamilton  Intelligencer, 
Sept.  27  and  Oct.  4,  1824. 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  133 

was  resolved  to  support  no  candidate  whose  position  with  regard 
to  western  interests  was  uncertain.  It  is  significant  that  the  most 
damaging  charge  brought  against  Clay  was  that  he  intended,  at 
the  last,  to  throw  his  influence  in  favor  of  Crawford,  which  would 
have  meant  the  subordination  of  western  interests  to  southern.^" 

Both  Calhoun  and  Crawford  were  unacceptable  in  Ohio,  too, 
because  of  their  residence  in  the  slave  section.  An  added  objection 
to  both  was  their  membership  in  Monroe's  cabinet.  The  West  was 
growing  impatient  and  alarmed  at  the  practice  of  "cabinet  succes- 
sion," -^  Even  more  odious  was  the  caucus  system  to  which  Craw- 
ford owed  his  nomination.--  Never  popular,  and  now  discredited 
by  the  defection  of  nearly  all  congressmen  but  those  who  favored 
Crawford,  it  had  come  to  stand  in  western  opinion  for  that  type  of 
political  manipulation  which  jeopardized  the  rule  of  the  people. 

It  seemed  for  awhile  that  DeWitt  Clinton  would  make  a  strong 
showing  in  the  state.  He  was  popular  both  as  an  opponent  of  the 
expansion  of  slavery  and  as  the  champion  of  the  Erie  canal  and  a 
connecting  system  of  internal  improvements.  He  was  the  favorite 
with  many  anti-slavery  men  in  the  regions  where  the  New  England 
stock  was  numerously  represented,  and  in  the  Cincinnati  region, 
where  the  friends  of  internal  improvements  were  offended  by  Clay's 
connection  with  the  United  States  Bank.-^  The  Clinton  move- 
ment collapsed  for  want  of  support  in  New  York. 

Adams  fell  heir  to  most  of  Clinton's  following  in  the  eastern 
and  northern  portions  of  Ohio,  where  his  opposition  to  slavery  was 
sufficient  to  determine  the  choice  of  many  of  the  descendants  of 
New  England.^*  Where  economic  questions  were  considered  up- 
permost he  suffered  from  a  non-committal  policy.  His  views,  like 
Crawford's,  were  not  to  be  deduced  with  certainty  from  his  public 
record,  and  although  friendly  to  the  American  System  he  believed 
it  possible  to  harmonize  sectional  interests,  and  made  efforts  to 


-*  See  below,  f.  n.  42. 

-^Resolutions  of  Clay  Convention,  July  15,  1824,  published  in  Columbus  Gazette,  July  22  ; 
Address  of  Jackson  State  Committee,  published  in  Hamilton  Intelligencer,  Sept.  27  and  Oct. 
4,   1824. 

"-  C/.  criticisms  of  the  caucus,  for  example,  in  Columbus  Gazette,  Feb.  26,  1824  ;  National 
Republican,   Feb.  27,   1824  ;  Delaware  Patron,  March  4,   1824. 

-3  For  example,  Clinton  was  supported  in  the  southwestern  quarter  by  the  National 
Republican,  because  of  his  leadership  in  internal  improvements,  and  in  the  eastern  portion  by 
the   Western  Herald,  on  anti-slavery  grounds. 

-*  See  files  of  leading  Adams  papers :  Ohio  Monitor,  Delaware  Patron.  Most  of  the  old 
Federalists  probably  supported  him,  although,  in  meeting  the  charge  that  he  was  a  Federalist 
the  Patron  pointed  out  that  the  Federalist  leaders — Judge  Burnet,  Elisha  Whittlesey,  General 
Beecher — were  supporting  Clay.    Issues  of  October   7  and  21,   1824. 


134  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

persuade  Virginia  that  his  policies  would  accord  with  the  desires 
of  the  people  there.  He  succeeded  in  convincing  "many  of  the  old 
school  ....  that  he  was  a  true  friend  of  the  doctrines  of  1798,"  " 
but  his  cautious  statements  in  some  degree  defeated  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  made.-'^  In  the  West  he  made  no  statement; 
it  would  have  been  difficult  to  satisfy  the  West  of  his  devotion  to 
its  interests  and  at  the  same  time  seem  consistent.  An  avowal  of 
friendship  for  western  policies,  however,  coupled  with  his  anti- 
slavery  principles,  would  have  strengthened  him  in  Ohio  and  might 
conceivably  have  given  him  a  plurality  in  the  electoral  college.  The 
addition  of  Ohio's  sixteen  votes  would  have  given  him  the  lead 
over  Jackson,  and  the  "plurality  doctrine,"  of  which  the  latter's 
friends  made  so  much  later,  would  have  been  unavailable  for  the 
opposition,"  However,  he  refused  even  to  allow  his  friends  to 
make  an  authoritative  statement  of  his  principles,  thus  losing  the 
support  of  an  unknown,  but  certainly  large,  number  of  voters  who 
considered  certainty  of  attitude  towards  western  interests  a  sine 
qua  non  for  their  support.-*     This  handicap  allowed  prejudice  to 


25  Ambler,  Ritchie,  89,  commenting  on  Adams's  Address  in  reply  to  General  Smyth's  pub- 
*Hc  statement  of  reasons  why  he  would  not  support  Adams  for  the  presidency.  Adams's  address 
is  printed  in  Richmond  Enquirer,  Jan.  4,  1823.  Jefferson  and  a  majority  of  the  Old  School 
Republicans  of  Virginia  preferred  Adams  to  Jackpon.  Ambler,  Ritchie,  98.  See  Adams,  Mejnoirs, 
IV,  353.  Also  note  statement  of  Adams  to  James  Barbour,  senator  from  Virginia,  in  the  inter- 
val between  the  election  and  the  House  balloting  (Dec.  22,  1824)  :  "I  was  satisfied  with  the 
tariff  as  now  established  ....  if  the  tariff  should  be  found  to  bear  hard  upon  the  agricul- 
tural and  commercial  interests,  I  should  incline  to  an  alleviation  of  it  in  their  favor.  As  to 
internal  improvements  ....  since  the  Act  of  Congress  establishing  the  Cumberland  road,  there 
had  been  no  constitutional  question  worth  disputing  about.  .  .  ."  Ibid.,  VI,  451.  In  this  inter- 
view Barbour  assured  Adams  that  he  was  the  second  choice  of  the  Virginia  delegation,  and,  he 
believed,  of  the  people  of  the  state.    Ibid.,  450. 

-"On  the  Smyth  incident  Ritchie  remarked  editorially:  "Is  Mr.  A.  really  a  friend  to  the 
limited  interpretation  of  the  constitution — does  he  stick  to  the  doctrines  of  Virginia — is  he 
opposed  to  the  Bank  of  the  U.  S. — to  a  general  system  of  internal  improvement?  We  cannot 
make  out  from  his  address "  Richmond  Enquirer,  quoted  by  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Adver- 
tiser. Feb.  15,  1823. 

2T  The  Address  of  the  Jackson  State  Committee,  issued  in  September,  1824,  predicted  the 
selection  of  Jackson  by  the  House  of  Representatives  because  of  "the  general  impression  which 
prevails,  that  that  body  would  elect  the  candidate  who  had  received  the  greatest  number  of 
electoral  votes,  and  not  incur  the  responsibility  and  obloquy  of  selecting  one  less  popular  with 
the  people."    Hamilton  Intelligencer,  Sept.  27  and  Oct.  4,  1824. 

2*  Postmaster-General  McLean's  brother  was  on  the  Adams  electoral  ticket  in  Ohio. 
In  response  to  an  inquiry,  Adams  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Postmaster  expressing  views  favorable 
to  internal  improvements.  McLean's  pui'pose  in  making  the  inquiry  was  to  obtain  an  expres- 
sion of  Adams's  opinion  which  his  brother  might  use  in  the  campaign,  but  Adams  requested 
that  the  letter  be  kept  from  the  newspapers.  Memoirs,  VI,  323.  Despite  the  efforts  of  friends 
to  prove  his  position  with  insufficient  evidence,  the  opposition  press  continued  to  exploit  the 
fact  that  his  views  were  doubtful.  Thus  the  Supporter  brushes  aside  the  charge  of  Socinianism 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  praise  of  his  talents  and  character  on  the  other  as  irrelevant:  "The 
people  of  Ohio  and  of  the  middle  states  although  ready  to  acknowledge  his  merits  will  not 
support   him  for  President  until  they  shall  have  ascertained  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  135 

play  havoc  with  his  prospects.  His  personal  character  could  not 
offset  his  lack  of  satisfactory  views  and  popular  qualities;  rather, 
it  contributed  to  the  estimate  of  him  as  an  aristocrat  and  former 
Federalist — a  New  Englander,  and  by  that  token  a  natural  enemy 
of  the  West.^^  Like  Calhoun  and  Crawford,  he  suffered  also  from 
the  western  dislike  for  the  succession  of  cabinet  members,  the  suc- 
cession of  the  secretary  of  state  being  regarded  as  especially  ob- 
noxious. 

Clay  appeared  from  the  first  to  be  the  logical  candidate  for 
Ohio  to  support.  He  was  a  western  man,  and  more  thoroughly 
identified  than  "any  other  with  what  the  West  regarded  as  its  essen- 
tial interests.  On  the  tariff  and  internal  improvement  policies  his 
record  left  nothing  to  be  desired,  and  in  the  last  session  of  Con- 
gress before  the  election  his  voice  had  been  lifted  more  eloquently 
than  ever  in  behalf  of  western  rights.  The  position  of  other  can- 
didates might  be  uncertain  but  not  Clay's.  Such  considerations 
governed  the  action  of  the  legislative  caucus  which  endorsed  him 
in  January,  1823.^"  Against  him  the  anti-slavery  element  urged  a 
friendliness  for  slavery,  as  shown  by  his  conduct  during  the  Mis- 
souri contest,^^  while  the  antagonism  to  the  United  States  Bank, 
centering  in  the  southwestern  portion  of  the  state,  prevented  him 
from  becoming  at  any  time  the  favorite  in  that  quarter.^-  The  most 


that  his  sentiments  on  the  great  political  questions  which  now  agitate  the  country  coincide 
with  their  own."  The  sentiment  of  Congress  and  the  West  is  for  internal  improvements  and  a 
president  is  wanted  who  will  co-operate  and  not  thwart  their  wishes.  "We  never  can — we  never 
will  countenance  the  pretensions  of  any  man,  however  meritorious  he  may  be  in  other  respects, 
whose  sentiments  on  the  questions  at  issue  may  be  considered  doubtful.  We  will  put  nothing 
to  hazard."  March  25,  1824.  Cf.  summary  of  irreconcilable  claims  made  for  Adams  in  issue 
of  Sept.  16.  At  the  very  close  of  the  campaign  the  Supporter  remarked:  "It  has  been  proved 
beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt  that  he  always  has  been,  and  now  is,  decidedly  hostile  to  in- 
ternal improvements  and  the  protection  of  national  industry."    Issue  of  Oct.   31,   1824. 

Similar  objections  were  made  in  Indiana.  The  Western  Sun  for  July  24  said:  "The 
chief  objections  to  Adams  are,  1  He  is  still  at  heart  a  Federalist,  2  He  is  opposed  to  a  tariff 
and  to  Internal  Improvement,  .  .  .  ."  Quoted  by  Esarey,  L.,  "The  Organization  of  the  Jack- 
sonian  Party  in  Indiana,"  in  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Society  Proceedings  for  1913-1914, 
227-228. 

29  National  Republican,  Aug.  28  and  Sept.  3,  10,  and  29,  1824 ;  Supporter,  March  25, 
April  29,  June  24,  Aug.  5,  Sept.  9,  Oct.  21,  Nov.  4,  etc.,  etc. ;  Mad  River  Courant,  quoted  by 
Columbus  Gazette,  May  29,  1823  ;  Hamilton  Intelligencer,  July  26,  1824,  quoting  Boston  Statesman. 

30  Columbus  Gazette,  Jan.  9,  1823. 

31  Ohio  Monitor,  Feb.  22,  1823.     Western  Herald,  Mar.   22,   1823. 

3-  Clay  had  acted  as  attorney  for  the  Cincinnati  branch,  and  in  that  part  of  the  state  was 
held  responsible  for  its  pressui-e  on  debtors  to  the  point  of  foreclosure  in  many  instances. 
Hamilton  Intelligencer,  Feb.  24,  1823  ;  National  Republican,  Aug.  13  and  17,  and  Oct.  15  and 
22,  1824.  The  charge  was  repeated  elsewhere  in  the  state  {Ohio  Monitor,  March  1,  1823; 
Western  Herald,  Mar.  22,  1823 )  but  without  serious  consequences  save  where  the  bank's  conduct 
had  aroused  great  feeling.  Charles  Hammond,  Clay's  manager,  had  been  chief  counsel  for  the 
state  during  the  attempt  to  tax  the  branches. 


136  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

damaging  attack  upon  him,  however,  was  the  charge  already  al- 
luded to,  that  he  was  in  secret  favorable  to  the  success  of  the  can- 
didate who  represented  the  southern  interest.^^ 

Jackson's  campaign  in  Ohio  was  late  in  developing  but  made 
rapid  progress.^*  It  found  its  basis  in  the  growing  antipathy  to 
the  machine  politics  of  the  time,  as  embodied,  in  the  popular  esti- 
mate, in  caucus  nominations  and  succession  of  cabinet  members, 
and  to  aristocratic  control  of  the  Federal  Government  as  repre- 
sented by  the  traditional  regard  for  birth,  social  standing,  and 
special  training  as  essentials  for  the  filling  of  public  ofRce.^^  Jack- 
son's personal  qualities  made  him  immensely  popular,  and  were 
believed  to  be  a  guarantee  of  reform  of  these  practices.^^  But  it 
is  perfectly  clear  that  notwithstanding  all  this,  he  could  not  have 
commanded  any  considerable  support  had  it  not  been  believed  that 
he  was  "sound"  in  his  views  on  western  policies."     His  orthodoxy 


33  See  above,   133. 

3*  National  Republican,  April  27,  1824.  Webster,  H.  J.,  History  of  the  Democratic  Party 
Organization  in  the  Northwest,  8  et  sen. 

*^  Address  issued  by  Jackson  Corresponding  Committee  of  Cincinnati  and  Hamilton 
County,  in  National  Republican,  May  18,  1824  ;  Address  of  Committee  appointed  by  Jackson 
State  Convention,  in  Hainilton  Intelligencer,  Sept.  27  and  Oct.  4,  1824. 

38  See,  for  example,  articles  in  Hamilton  Intelligencer  for  Jan.  20,  24,  April  13,  20,  27, 
May  25,  Oct.  4,  et  passim;  Delaware  Patron,  Oct.  29,  1823. 

3'' A  typical  plea  for  Jackson  is  that  published  in  the  Westmoreland  (Pa.)  Republican. 
After  adverting  to  the  need  of  simplicity  in  government  and  the  dangerous  tendencies  of  the 
secretarial  succession,  it  declares  that  the  people  desire  a  president  "who  would  extend  equal 
and  impartial  protection  and  support  to  the  three  great  national  interests — who  would  foster 
our  resoux-ces,  encourage  domestic  industry,  promote  internal  improvements,  and  divested  of 
sectional  prejudice  or  partj'  feeling,  labor  for  the  public  good  alone.  General  Jackson,  we  be- 
lieve, combines  these  requisites  in  his  character,  and  in  this  faith  we  have  united  in  support  of 
him."    Quoted  by  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser,   Feb.  22,   1823. 

"Jackson  was  considered  a  'good  tariff  and  Internal  Improvement  man'  in  all  three  of 
his  campaigns  in  Indiana.  Any  intimation  that  he  was  not  sound  on  both  of  these  issues  would 
have  been  resented  by  his  Indiana  friends." — Esarey,  "The  Organization  of  the  Jacksonian 
Party  in  Indiana,"  loc.  cit. 

Cf.  Address  of  Hamilton  County  Committee,  which  declared  that  "ill-founded  constitu- 
tional scruples"  had  intervened  to  prevent  appropriations  for  national  purposes.  Also  Address 
of  the  State  Committee,  which  deplored  Clay's  candidacy  as  dividing  those  holding  the  same 
sentiments  as  to  a  national  policy,  and  declared  Jackson's  "views  of  public  policy,  as  to  inter- 
nal improvements  and  protection  to  domestic  manufactures,  eminently  qualify  him  for  the  chief 
seat  in  our  national  councils." 

Cf.  Jackson  himself,  in  letter  to  Col.  George  Wilson,  April  17,  1824 :  "It  is  well  known 
that  I  am  in  favor  of  the  general  principle  of  the  [tariff]  bill,"  etc.  Parton,  Life  of  Jackson, 
III,  42.  See  also  the  letter  to  L.  H.  Coleman,  April  26,  1824 :  "Where  has  the  American 
farmer  a  market  for  his  surplus  product?  Except  for  cotton,  he  has  neither  a  foreign  nor  a 
home  market.  Does  not  this  clearly  prove,  when  there  is  no  market  either  at  home  or  abroad, 
that  there  is  too  much  labor  employed  in  agriculture,  and  that  the  channels  of  labor  should  be 
multiplied?  Common  sense  points  out  at  once  the  remedy.  Draw  from  agriculture  this  abundant 
labor ;  employ  it  in  mechanism  and  manufactures,  thereby  creating  a  home  market  for  your 
bread  stuffs,  and  distributing  labor  to  the  most  profitable  account,  and  benefits  to  the  country 
will  result.    In  short,   sir,   we  have  been  too   long  subject  to   the  policy  of  British   merchants. 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  137 

in  this  regard  was  taken  for  granted,  and  the  attacks  upon  him 
were  based  on  his  unfitness  for  the  presidential  office.^** 

The  friends  of  both  Clay  and  Jackson  deplored  the  division 
of  support  between  two  western  candidates.  Each  group  urged 
that  the  division  endangered  the  influence  of  the  West  in  the  elec- 
tion and  charged  the  other  with  the  blame.  Jackson's  friends  urged 
the  withdrawal  of  Clay,  but  there  was  at  no  time  any  hope  of  a 
union  of  the  two  groups.^^  It  was  also  perceived  that  the  cause 
of  the  West  could  triumph  only  through  union  with  the  Northeast 
or  South.  A  union  with  the  Northeast  could  be  effected,  however, 
only  by  accepting  an  eastern  candidate  ;*°  while  southern  votes  for 
a  western  man  could  be  had,  if  at  all,  only  at  the  price  of  subordi- 
nation of  western  interests.^^     The  friends  of  both  Crawford  and 


It  is  time  we  should  become  a  little  more  Americanized,  and,  instead  of  feeding  the  paupers 
and  laborers  of  England,  feed  our  own,  or  else,  in  a  short  time,  by  following  our  present 
policy,  we  shall  all  be  rendered  paupers  ourselves "    Ibid.,  34  et  seq. 

The  Hamilton  Intelligencer,  June  29,  and  National  Republican,  Aug.  24,  1824,  contain 
typical  articles  designed  to  prove  Jackson's  friendliness  to  western  interests.  An  occasional 
doubt  appears,  e.  g..  Liberty  Hall  questioned  the  sincerity  of  his  protectionism  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  his  strength  was  so  great  in  the  South  (April  27,  1824),  and  was  sure  that  the  Ameri- 
can System  had  a  thousand  better  friends.    Quoted  in  Supporter,  Aug.  12,  1824. 

38  Liberty  Hall,  Sept.  2,  14,  21,  24,  Oct.  1,  1824  ;  Supporter,  Feb.  26,  Oct.  21,  1824. 
See  below,  139,  /.  n.  48.  The  situation  in  Indiana  was  similar,  in  a  general  way,  although 
being  still  in  the  pioneer  stage,  Jackson's  following  was  proportionately  stronger.  "The  sym- 
pathies of  the  pioneers  were  for  the  rough  and  rugged  Jackson.  It  was  known  that  Jackson 
opposed  the  banks,  and,  on  that  ground,  received  the  support  of  great  numbers  of  financially 
embarrassed  settlers  who  attributed  the  scarcity  of  money  to  the  manipulation  of  bankers. 
....    The   business    men   and   the    well-to-do    farmers    usually    favored    Clay   on    account    of    his 

position    on   the   tariff   and    internal   improvements Adams    stood    well   with   the    lawyers 

and  other  professional  men  and  was  the  favorite  among  the  Quakers  and  other  settlers  on  the 
Whitewater " — Esarey,  History  of  Indiana,  250  et  seq. 

8"  Address  of  the  Jackson  State  Committee,  loc.  cit.;  Resolutions  of  Clay  Convention; 
Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser,  Feb.  7,  28,  March  3,  Sept.   11. 

■»"  "The  eastern  and  northern  states  from  the  important  part  they  took  in  achieving  our 
independence  and  establishing  the  form  of  gov't  under  which  we  live,  &  from  which  we  derive 
such  incalculable  benefits,  have  an  undoubted  right  to  be  a  little  tenacious  of  the  honor  of 
furnishing  the  next  President ;  and  courtesy  &  reciprocity  of  benefits  should  induce  the  other 
sections  to  accord  to  them  that  honor,  provided  the  candidate  offered  possesses  equal  qualifica- 
tions with  the  other  competitors."    Delaware  Patron,  March  18,  1824.    The  Patron  favored  Adams. 

*i  "If  a  western  interest  is  intended  to  effect  the  election  of  a  president,  as  is  proposed 
by  all  who  speak  of  the  feasibility  of  electing  a  western  president,  it  must  include  all  the 
southern  states,  and  one  or  more  of  the  middle  states,  and  if  a  western  candidate  is  elected 
by  such  votes  he  must  be  governed  by  their  policy."  Ohio  Monitor,  Feb.  15,  1823.  Like  the 
Delaware  Patron,  the  Monitor  favored  Adams. 

Clay  indulged  a  hope  of  winning  the  support  of  Virginia,  his  native  state,  and  visited 
friends  there  in  1825:  to  promote  his  candidacy.  Ambler,  Ritchie,  87-90.  His  cordial  reception 
encouraged  his  hope,  but  at  times  he  perceived  its  vanity.  See  correspondence  with  Francis 
Brooke,  especially  letter  of  August  28,  1823,  quoted  above,  113,  /.  n.  100.  The  conclusion  of 
this  letter,  as  to  his  own  prospects  in  Virginia,  is  gloomy :  "You  will  oppose  my  election,  I 
suppose,  in  Virginia.  I  have  no  right  to  complain."  And  he  perceives  clearly  the  reasons  why 
he  cannot  expect  the  desired  support.  "You  will  oppose  me  because  I  think  that  the  interests 
of  all  parts  of  the  Union  should  be  taken   care  of ;  in  other  words,  that  the  interests  of  the 


138  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

Clinton  sought  to  promote  coalitions  in  behalf  of  their  candidates. 
So  far  as  Crawford's  hopes  are  concerned,  they  were  impossible 
of  realization  because  of  the  incompatibility  of  the  sectional  in- 
terests concerned,  and  the  overtures  of  his  friends  were  rejected 
without  hesitation. *2  The  Clintonians  pled  with  more  reason  that 
Ohio  should  join  with  the  Northeast  in  support  of  their  candidate 
rather  than  a  western  man,  upon  the  basis  of  common  opposition 
to  slavery  expansion  and  common  desire  for  internal  improvements 
and  protection. *=*  As  later  events  proved,  there  was  an  excellent 
basis  for  a  union  of  the  Ohio  Valley  and  those  eastern  states  which 
favored  the  American  System,  in  support  of  Adams.  But  none  of 
the  schemes  for  coalition  made  any  headway.  In  default  of  com- 
mon support  of  a  candidate  for  the  presidency,  the  next  best  step 
in  the  direction  of  new  sectional  alliances  was  to  support  candi- 
dates of  different  sections  for  the  presidential  and  vice-presidential 
offices.  From  this  angle,  the  acceptance  of  Calhoun  as  the  candi- 
date for  the  second  place  by  the  western  friends  of  Jackson  is  sig- 
nificant. While  it  did  not  at  the  time  mark  a  personal  alliance  of 
the  two  men,  it  foreshadowed  it,  and  the  union  of  their  followers 
in  opposition  to  the  administration  during  the  term  of  Adams. 
Similarly,  the  Clay  men,  although  refusing  to  forsake  their  favorite 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  .friends  of  either  of  the  northern  candi- 
dates, resorted  to  the  strategy  of  bidding  for  the  support  of  the 
Northeast  by  nominating  Sanford,  of  New  York,  for  the  second 


interior,  on  the  two  subjects  mentioned,  as  well  as  that  of  the  maritime  coast,  ought  to  be 
provided  for."  In  a  later  letter  to  Brooke,  however  (Feb.  23,  1824),  he  argues  that  the  caucus 
nomination  has  destroyed  Crawford,  that  Virginia  will  have  to  choose  between  Jackson  and 
himself,  and  urges  a  demonstration  in  his  favor.  Colton,  Life  of  Clay,  IV,  86  et  seq.  A  few 
days  later  he  suggests  that  any  appeal  to  the  people  in  his  behalf  should  be  "temperate  and 
conciliatory."    To  Brooke,   March  6,   1824.     Ihid.,   88. 

*"  The  desire  of  Crawford's  friends  to  win  support  for  him  in  the  West  (Ambler, 
Ritchie,  94  et  seq.)  was  the  source  of  the  charge  of  coalition  with  Clay.  (See  above,  203,  210). 
Clay's  opponents  used  it  quite  effectively,  asserting  that  to  support  Clay  meant  eventually  to 
aid  Crawford.  Delaware  Patron,  Aug.  6,  1823,  June  24,  July  15,  and  Sept.  15,  1824  ;  National 
Republican,  March  30,  April  2,  16,  June  1,  22,  and  Aug.  13,  1824.  Clay  gave  the  proposal  no 
countenance,  unless  we  can  so  construe  his  suggestion  to  Brooke,  March  6,  1824,  that  his  friends 
at  Richmond  should  not  clash  with  those  of  Crawford.  Colton,  Life  of  Clay,  IV,  88.  He  insisted 
that  the  vote  of  the  northwestern  states  would  go  for  Adams  as  their  second  choice.  To  Brooke, 
Feb.  23,  1824.  Ibid.,  IV,  86.  The  mutual  friends  of  Clay  and  Crawford,  in  Virginia,  sought  to 
force  a  vice-presidential  nomination  upon  the  former.  Said  one:  "As  to  consulting  Mr.  Clay 
it   is   injudicious.     Let   him   not   be   consulted,   and   the    force   of   circumstances   must    urge   him 

into   an   acquiescence When    New   York   elects   electors   favorable   to   Mr.    Crawford   her 

Legislature  ought  to  nominate  Mr.  Clay  as  vice-president."  Ambler,  Ritchie,  94  et  seq.  Clay's 
friends  took  great  pains  to  deny  the  charge  of  coalition  with  Crawford.  Colmnbus  Gazette,  Jan. 
22,  1824 ;  National  Republican,  April  2,  1824 ;  Supporter,  April  15  and  Sept.  30,  1824.  The 
whole  incident  affords   interesting  collateral  evidence  of  the   incompatibility   of  their  sections. 

*^  National  Republican,  Sept.   19,   1823. 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  139 

place."  The  Adams  group  made  an  attempt  of  the  same  kind  by 
advocating  in  Ohio  and  elsewhere  for  a  time  the  nomination  of 
Jackson  as  the  New  Englander's  running  mate.*^  All  of  these  de- 
vices are  significant  as  indications  of  the  tendencies  to  realignment, 
but  none  of  them  were  practically  effective  in  securing  intersec- 
tional  co-operation  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  determine  the  election. 
The  continuation  of  the  four  leading  candidates  in  the  field  to  the 
end  of  the  contest  insured,  as  was  foreseen,  a  resort  to  the  House 
of  Representatives  for  the  final  choice.*^  In  this  campaign  the  race 
for  the  electoral  vote  served  as  an  elimination  event,  to  be  followed 
by  coalitions  of  the  kind  which  could  not  occur  before  the  election. 
The  way  was  thus  cleared  for  the  union  of  the  West  and  Northeast 
which  had  been  advocated  in  vain  before  the  election.  The  interval 
between  the  election  and  the  balloting  of  the  House  was  the  period 
in  which  these  coalitions  took  form,  and  they  were  shaped  by  the 
same  forces  which  we  have  found  at  work  during  the  campaign. 
It  was  inevitable  that  the  influence  of  the  eliminated  candidate 
should  be  a  prime  factor  in  determining  the  final  result. 

The  motives  of  Clay  in  deciding  to  support  Adams  rather  than 
either  of  the  other  candidates  are  no  longer  a  mystery.  Thej'-  are 
in  entire  accord  with  his  long-established  views.  Agreeable  as 
Crawford  was  to  him  as  a  man,  his  policies,  even  if  the  unfortunate 
stroke  of  paralysis  had  not  cast  doubt  upon  his  physical  capacity 
for  office,  were  such  that  Clay  could  not  possibly  have  supported 
him.*''  As  to  Jackson,  however  satisfactory  his  views  with  re- 
gard to  public  policies.  Clay's  conviction  of  his  personal  unfitness 
is  not  to  be  doubted.*^     Adams,  on  the  other  hand,  although  never 


**  Report  of  Clay  Convention,  at  Columbus,   in   Columbus  Gazette,   July  22,   1824. 

*5  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI,  253  ;  Delaivare  Patron,  April  8,   1824. 

*^  Clay's  chance  of  coming  before  the  House  depended  largely  upon  his  ability  to  command 
electoral  votes  in  the  South.  But  although  his  western  friends  endeavored  to  make  it  appear  that 
his  candidacy  was  based  on  broad  national  grounds  (C/.  Address  of  Clay  Convention  at  Columbus), 
he  failed  in  the  South  as  Crawford  failed  in  the  West,  and  for  the  same  reason,  viz.,  that  each 
represented  the  interests  of  his  own  section,  and  they  were  irreconcilable.  In  western  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York,  where  sentiment  was  in  harmony  with  Clay's  policies,  it  was  made  to 
accrue  to  the  benefit  of  other  candidates. 

April  26,  1823,  the  Western  Herald  remarked  that  all  of  the  candidates  were  sectional, 
and  sectional  influences  would  prevail  in  the  House  election. 

■•"Clay  to  Hammond,  Oct.,  1824  (Smith,  Havunond,  37);  to  F.  P.  Blair,  Jan.  8,  1825 
(Works  of  Clay,  Federal  edition,  IV,  109  et  seq.)  ;  to  Francis  Brooke,  Jan.  28,  1825  {ibid.,  IV, 
Ul.) 

*8  See  letters  to  Blair  and  Brooke,  cited  in  preceding  note ;  also  to  Rutgers,  June  4, 
1827,  ibid,  163.  Cf.  Hammond:  "It  is  their  [Clay's  friends']  sincere  and  honest  conviction 
that   he   does   not  possess   the   political   intelligence  and  judicial   information    indispensable    in   a 


140  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

in  cordial  relations  with  Clay,  was  respected  for  his  ability  and 
known  by  him  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  American  System.*^  Be- 
sides, Clay  and  his  friends  believed  that  Adams  was  the  second 
choice  of  the  West.^"  In  fact,  instead  of  determining  the  western 
delegations  in  their  choice.  Clay  seems  to  have  followed  rather  than 
led;  and  in  supporting  Adams  the  West  was  pursuing  its  true 
economic  interest.^^ 

The  union  of  forces  foreshadowed  by  the  aid  of  Clay's  friends 
in  electing  Adams  was  carried  towards  its  consummation  by  the 
appointment  of  Clay  as  secretary  of  state,  and  the  final  result  was 


president."  Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser,  Sept.  11,  1824.  For  Hammond's  more  intimate 
opinion  see  Smith,  Hammond,  35.  See  also  John  C.  Wright  to  Ephraim  Cutler,  in  Cutler,  Life 
of  Cutler,  185. 

*8  "He  wished  me,  as  far  as  I  might  think  proper,  to  satisfy  him  with  regard  to  some 
principles  of  great  public  importance."  Adams's  record  of  interview  with  Clay  on  Jan.  9, 
1825.    Memoirs,  VI,   464. 

^^  The  Supporter  declared,  July  8,  that  Clay's  rumored  withdrawal,  if  it  took  place, 
would  give  Ohio  to  Adams.  See  letter  of  Hammond  (signed  "L.")  in  Cincinnati  Inquisitor 
Advertiser,  Sept.  11,  1824:  He  believed  Clay's  withdrawal  would  give  Ohio,  Indiana,  New  York, 
and  New  Jersey  to  Adams.  The  drift  of  Clay's  friends  towards  Adams  became  noticeable  as 
soon  as  the  result  of  the  fall  election  was  known.  The  caustic  comment  of  the  Jackson  press 
really  bears  witness  to  a  natural  preference  for  Adams:  "It  is  really  amusing  to  observe  with 
what  facility  some  of  the  chief  men  of  the  Clay  party  in  Ohio,  men  who  have  pretended  to  be 
the  champions  of  a  liberal  and  enlightened  policy  for  the  protection  of  Domestic  Manufactures, 
can  veer  about,  as  interest  or  ambition  may  dictate,  and  become  the  humble  supporters  of  a  man 
notoriously  opposed  to  'domestic  measures.'  "  National  Republican,  Dec.  28,  1824.  In  the  issue 
for  March  4,  1825,  the  Republican  refers  to  Clay  as  the  "Arnold  of  the  West."  The  Clay  men 
who  supported  Adams  were  better  informed  than  their  critics  as  to  his  real  views.  Clay  wrote 
to  Blair  (letter  cited  above,  139,  /.  n.  47)  :  "What  has  great  weight  with  me  is  the  decided 
preference  which  a  majority  of  the  delegation  from  Ohio  has  for  him  over  General  Jackson." 
In  the  House  election  ten  of  the  Ohio  delegation  voted  for  Adams,  two  for  Jackson  and  two  for 
Crawford.  Clay's  reasons  for  his  course  are  summed  up  in  his  Address  to  his  Constituents: 
Niles  Register,  XXVIII,  71  et  seq.  Clay  had  declared  Adams  to  be  the  second  choice  of  the 
Northwest  in  February,  1824.     Letter  to  Brooke,  cited  above,   139,  /.  «.  47. 

°i  Cf.  lettei-s  of  members  of  the  Ohio  delegation,  published  in  the  Address  of  Henry  Clay 
to  the  Public,  Appendix,  30-61,  for  statements  showing  that  Adams's  support  was  due  to  the 
recognition  of  the  community  of  interest  between  the  West  and  the  Northeast,  and  suspicion 
of  Jackson  because  of  his  personal  limitations  and  the  support  given  him  in  the  South.  See  also 
letter  of  W.  Creighton,  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  approving  of  Clay's  union  with  Adams,  on  the 
assumption  "that  Mr.  A.  will  pursue  a  liberal  policy,  and  embrace  within  its  scope  the  great 
leading  policy  that  you  have  been  advocating."  Colton,  Life  of  Clay,  IV,  118.  Similar  motives 
influenced  members  of  the  delegations  of  other  western  states.  See  letter  of  David  Trimble,  of 
Kentucky,  to  the  editor  of  the  Mount  Sterling  Spy :  ".  .  .  .  My  own  opinion  was  founded  on 
the  facts  as  I  knew  them  to  exist,  and  upon  considerations  referable  to  the  general  inter- 
ests of  the  union,   and  of  the  western  states  as  a  part  of  it.    Apart  from  personal  feeling,  it 

was  as  clear  a  case  as  I  ever  had  before  me "    Quoted  in  Niles  Register,  XXVIII,  69.    Cf. 

letter  of  Francis  Johnson  To  the  Public,  March  .',  1825,  Nilea  Register,  XXVIII,  25  ;  Brent,  of 
Louisiana,  to  the  editor  of  the  Attakapas  Gazette,  ibid.,  134  ;  and  numerous  others,  ibid.,  203 
et  seq.  Gazlay,  one  of  the  two  Ohio  representatives  who  voted  for  Jackson,  said  that  he 
talked  with  three  other  Ohio  members,  two  of  whom  said  that  it  would  not  do  to  vote  for 
Jackson,  as  he  was  the  enemy  of  internal  improvements ;  the  third  was  ready  to  risk  violating 
the  wishes  of  his  constituents. 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  141 

the  National  Republican  party,  the  platform  of  which  was  the 
American  System. 

The  Democratic  party  grew  out  of  the  opposition.  It  must  be 
recalled  that  the  Republican  party  had  from  the  beginning  em- 
braced antagonistic  elements  in  the  coastal  aristocracy  of  planters 
and  the  farming  democracy  of  the  back  settlements.  Although  the 
planter  pressed  close  after  the  pioneer  farmer  in  the  Gulf  region, 
we  have  seen  that  down  to  1825  the  movement  of  population  to  the 
west  of  the  Alleghanies  was  predominantly  a  migration  of  the 
democratic  stock  of  the  piedmont.  It  was  this  element  of  the  Re- 
publican party  which  had  colonized  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  ten  years 
after  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  the  transalleghany  region  was 
still  in  large  measure  the  child  of  that  Old  West  of  the  eighteenth 
century  which  had  challenged  the  political  supremacy  of  the  coast. 
The  sweep  of  this  pioneer  stock  into  Indiana,  Illinois,  Mississippi, 
and  Alabama  carried  into  practice  the  democratic  ideals  for  which 
they  had  struggled  in  their  old  homes,  for  although  white  man- 
hood suffrage  did  not  invariably  prevail,  the  basis  of  apportionment 
was  white  population,  even  in  the  new  slave  states.  Thus  expand- 
ing democracy  won  on  its  new  field  the  cause  for  which  it  had 
fought  in  vain  in  the  old  states.^^ 

The  growth  of  the  number  of  new  states,  democratically  gov- 
erned and  enjoying  equal  rights  in  the  Union,  foretold  the  early 
triumph  of  democratic  principles  in  national  politics.  One  might 
expect  to  find  the  western  democracy  turning  upon  the  planting 
class.  But  suffrage  and  apportionment  continued  to  be  matters 
under  state  control,  and  the  contest  within  the  original  states  went 
on  unaffected  by  the  growth  of  the  West  save  as  the  attraction  of 
the  lands  and  more  liberal  institutions  there  resulted  in  concessions 
to  prevent  migration.  It  was  only  in  the  national  arena  that  the 
West  could  exercise  its  political  power.  The  breach  between  South 
and  West,  in  short,  took  place  on  economic  grounds,  and  that  por- 
tion of  the  West  which  placed  economic  interests  first  followed  Clay 
into  the  coalition  with  Adams  which  formed  the  National  Repub- 


5=  By  1820,  all  of  the  states  in  the  Northwest  (except  Ohio)  and  Missouri,  had  established 
manhood  suffrage  for  whites.  In  the  Southwest  the  same  rule  held  except  in  Louisiana  and  Mis- 
sissippi :  in  the  former  voters  must  be  taxpayers  or  purchasers  of  public  lands  ;  in  the  latter  en- 
rollment in  the  militia  or  payment  of  taxes  were  alternatives.  In  Tennessee  even  free  negroes 
voted  until  1824.  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Maryland,  and  South  Carolina  had  adopted 
white  manhood  suffrage  by  1820. 


142  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

lican  party.^^  The  democratic  impulses  of  the  West  tended,  how- 
ever, in  quite  another  direction.  The  aristocratic  practices  preva- 
lent heretofore  in  the  national  administration  were  equally  odious 
whether  pursued  by  the  northern  or  southern  representatives  of  the 
coastal  oligarchy;  yet  of  the  two  old  coastal  parties  it  was 
the  Republicans  who  had  steadfastly  upheld  the  equal  political 
rights  of  the  people  in  the  new  western  communities,  while  the 
Northeast  was  historically  associated  with  jealousy  of  popular 
ideals  of  government.  The  circumstances  under  which  the  Na- 
tional Republican  party  was  born  unfortunately  gave  offense  to 
these  sentiments,  and  enabled  the  friends  of  Jackson  to  promote 
his  cause  in  the  name  of  popular  rule.  The  efforts  which  his  group 
had  made  during  the  campaign  to  arouse  the  people  against  the 
methods  of  the  politicians  were  redoubled  when  the  House  disre- 
garded the  indication  of  the  popular  choice  afforded  by  the  plurality 
for  Jackson  in  the  electoral  college,  because,  as  they  charged,  of  a 
corrupt  bargain  between  Adams  and  Clay,  by  which  the  latter  re- 
ceived the  appointment  as  secretary  of  state  in  return  for  his  sup- 
port.^^  The  "defeat  of  the  will  of  the  people"  by  this  "corrupt"  pro- 


^3  The  earlier  writers  were  inclined  to  see  in  the  National  Republican  party  a  revival 
of  Federalism.  Thus  Parton  says  of  the  Adams  administration:  "Federalism  supposed  to  be 
dead,  was  living',  rampant,  and  sitting  in  the  seat  of  power."  Life  of  Jackson,  III,  89.  Accord- 
ing to  Benton,  the  election  of  Jackson  was  a  "triumph  ....  of  the  democracy  over  the  fed- 
eralists, then  called  national  republicans For  although  Mr.  Adams  had  received  confi- 
dence and  office  from  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Monroe,  and  had  classed  with  the  democratic  party 
during  the  fusion  of  parties  in  the  'era  of  good  feeling,'  yet  he  had  previously  been  federal ; 
and  in  the  re-establishment  of  old  party  lines  which  began  to  take  place  after  the  election  of 

Mr.  Adams  ....   his  affinities,  and  policy,  became  those  of  his   former  party "    Thirty 

Years'  View,  I,  111-112.  Such  a  statement  ignores  the  new  force  in  the  establishment  of  party 
lines,  i.  e.,  the  West.  The  phenomenon  under  observation  was  not  the  "re-establishment  of  old 
party  lines,"  as  Jefferson  perceived  at  the  time.  A  letter  written  by  him  relative  to  the  Clay- 
Adams  coalition  bears  witness  to  this  and  to  his  disappointment  at  the  revolution  in  the 
relations  of  the  sections:    "I  fear  with  you  all  the  evils,  which  the  present  lowering  aspect  of 

our    political   horizon   so    ominously    portends And   what   is    still    less   expected    was   that 

my  favorite  western  country  was  to  be  made  the  instrument  of  that  change.  I  have  ever  and 
fondly  cherished  the  interests  of  that  country,  relying  upon  it  as  a  barrier  against  the  degen- 
eracy of  public  opinion  from  our  original  and  free  principles.  But  the  bait  of  local  inter- 
ests ....  has  decoyed  them  from  their  kindred  attachments  to  alliances  alien  to  them " 

To  Ritchie,  quoted  in  Ambler,  Ritchie,  102-103.  Cf.  letter  to  W.  F.  Gordon,  Jan.  1,  1826  ;  Ford, 
Writings  of  Jefferson,  X,  358.  Jefferson's  grief  over  the  West's  apostasy  was  somewhat  un- 
necessary, inasmuch  as  National  Republicanism,  instead  of  rejecting  popular  principles  of 
government  as  Federalism  had  done,  united  Federalist  nationalism  with  Republican  confidence 
in  the  people.    Such,  indeed,  was  the  happy  implication  of  the  party  name. 

"*  Cf.  effect  in  Virginia  of  the  rumor  that  Clay  had  agreed  to  support  Adams  in  the 
House  in  return  for  the  appointment:  "The  good  people  are  run  mad  here  about  the  presi- 
dential election.  I  was  with  some  of  our  great  men  at  Dr.  Brockenbrough's  the  other  night 
and  found  them  all  universally  denouncing  Clay  and  Adams.  They  ....  said  that  they  would 
take  Jackson  and  any  body  now  in  preference  to  Adams."  Betsy  Coles  to  Andrew  Stevenson, 
quoted  by  Ambler,  Ritchie,  99.  Ritchie  now  "turned  the  guns  prepared  for  Jackson  upon  Adams." 
Ibid.    See  also  106-107,  112-113. 


REALIGNMENT  OF  PARTIES  143 

cedure,  and  the  necessity  of  electing  Jackson  to  vindicate  the  right 
of  the  people  to  rule,  were  the  arguments  employed  with  greatest 
effect  by  the  managers  of  the  campaign  which  brought  Jackson  to 
the  White  House.  It  was  exactly  calculated  to  rally  the  western 
population  and  the  newly  enfranchised  classes  in  the  old  states." 
The  rule  of  intriguing  politicians  in  the  nation's  capital  became  the 
object  of  attack  much  as  aristocratic  domination  had  been  attacked 
by  the  interior  democracy  of  the  original  states.^-' 

But  this  does  not  afford  a  complete  explanation  of  the  triumph 
of  the  "Old  Hero."  The  planters  felt  no  enthusiasm  for  popular 
government  such  as  inspired  all  this  acclamation  and  yet  they  con- 
tinued in  alliance  with  the  democratic  element  of  the  West  and 
formed  the  second  factor  in  the  Jacksonian  Democracy  in  the  period 
of  its  inception,  as  they  had  done  in  the  Jeffersonian  Republicanism. 
The  explanation  lies  in  their  opposition  to  the  economic  policy 
of  the  Adams  administration.  The  inaugural  address  and  first 
message  of  the  new  president  revealed  that  the  South  had  nothing 
to  expect  from  the  National  Republicans,"  and  gave  the  basis  for 
renewed  union  with  a  part  of  the  West  in  common  opposition  to 
the  party  in  power.^^     In  their  disregard  of  the  policies  which  Jack- 


^^  "The  election  of  John  Q.  Adams  by  the  House  of  Representatives  welded  the  dissatis- 
fied democrats  of  Indiana  into. the  Jacksonian  Democratic  Party.  There  was  a  fierceness  in  their 
resentment  of  the  treatment  of  Jackson  which  was  little  short  of  warlike.  They  referred  to 
the  election  of  Adams  as  'the  theft  of  the  presidency.'  All  believed  that  Clay  had  sold  his 
influence  to  Adams  for  the  appointment  as  Secretary  of  State,  a  bargain  and  sale  of  the  gov- 
ernment which  they  thought  far  more  dangerous  than  Burr's  Conspiracy."— Esarey,  History 
of  Indiana,  298. 

B6  "The  election  of  General  Jackson  was  a  triumph  of  democratic  principle,  and  the 
assertion  of  the  people's  right  to  govern  themselves.  That  principle  had  been  violated  in  the 
presidential  election  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  session  of  1824-'25  ;  and  the  sanc- 
tion, or  rebuke,  of  that  violation  was  a  leading  question  in  the  whole  canvass."  Benton, 
Thirty   Years'   View,  1,  111. 

^T  Adams,  Memoirs,  VII,  105.  "The  declaration  of  principles  [in  the  inaugural  address] 
which  would  give  so  much  power  to  the  government,  and  the  danger  of  which  had  just  been 
so  fully  set  forth  by  Mr.  Monroe  in  his  veto  message  on  the  Cumberland  road  bill,  alarmed 
the  old   republicans,    and  gave   a   new  ground   of  opposition   to   Mr.    Adams'    administration,    in 

addition  to  the  strong  one  growing  out  of  the  election  in  the  House  of  Representatives 

This  new  ground  of  opposition  was  greatly  strengthened  at  the  delivery  of  the  first  annual 
message "    Benton,  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  54. 

58  The  renewal  of  the  alliance  between  the  planters  and  the  western  democracy  was  de- 
liberately engineered  by  the  political  managers.  Cf.  letter  of  Van  Buren,  dated  Jan.  13,  1827, 
outlining  the  plan  for  such  an  alliance  between  "the  planters  of  the  South  and  the  plain  Re- 
publicans of  the  North,"  quoted  by  Ambler,  Ritchie,  107. 

Cf.  J.  C.  Calhoun  to  his  son,  Aug.  26,  1827,  in  which  he  bases  his  opposition  to  the 
administration  on  the  ground  of  the  corrupt  means  by  which  it  came  to  power,  and  the  mis- 
taken policy  "of  arraying  the  great  geographical  interests  of  the  union  against  one  another," — 
that  is,  by  the  advocacy  of  the  American  System.  Jameson,  J.  F.,  Correspondence  of  John  C. 
Calhoun,   249-250.     Cf.   Benton,    Thirty    Years'    View,   I,    111.     This   letter  of   Calhoun's   is  one   of 


144  WESTERN  INFLUENCES  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES 

son  would  pursue  when  president,  however,  the  southerners  by 
aiding  in  his  election,  prepared  to  step  from  the  frying  pan  to  the 
fire.  The  natural  antipathy  of  the  planters  towards  the  political 
self-assertion  of  the  people,  the  measures  of  the  new  government, 
and  the  autocratic  temper  of  Jackson  as  chief  magistrate,  combined 
to  hasten  a  further  readjustment  of  party  groups,  in  which  the 
breach  between  South  and  West  was  widened  by  the  defection  from 
the  Democracy  of  that  southern  faction  which,  as  State  Rights 
Whigs,  entered  into  mismated  union  with  the  National  Repub- 
licans.^^ 


the  earliest  evidences  of  the  change  of  attitude  which  he  was  making.  As  late  as  May,  1825,  he 
had  reaffirmed  his  earlier  views.    See  above,  132,  /.   n.   17. 

Crawford  did  not  accept  the  bargain  charge  as  true,  but  wrote  to  Clay,  Feb.  4,  1828, 
criticising  Adams's  course  as  president:  "The  whole  of  his  first  message  to  Congress  is  re- 
plete with  doctrines  which  I  hold  to  be  unconstitutional."  Even  this,  "although  exceptionable," 
would  not  have  driven  Georgia  under  the  banner  of  Jackson,  Crawford  thought,  had  it  not  been 
for  Adams's  Indian  policy.  Colton,  Life  of  Clay,  IV,  191.  Clay  replied:  "Truth  compels  me 
to  say  that  I  have  heartily  approved  of  the  leading  measures  of  his  administration,  not  except- 
ing those  which  relate  to  Georgia."    Ibid.,  192. 

^*  See  Phillips,  U.  B.,  "The  Southern  Whigs,"  in  Turner  Essays  in  American  History, 
203-229. 


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Cincinnati  Inquisitor  Advertiser. 
Columbus  Gazette. 
Delaware  Patron.     (Ohio.) 
Hamilton  Intelligencer  and  Advertiser. 
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Scioto   Telegraph.    Continued  as  the  Scioto   Telegraph  and  Lawrence  Gazette.     (Portsmouth.) 

>  Supporter.    Continued  as  Supporter  and  Scioto  Gazette.     ( Chillicothe. ) 
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INDEX 


Adams,  John,  part  in  framing  Massachusetts 
constitution  of  1780,  26,  note ;  on  right  of 
people  to  establish  government,  33,  note ; 
philosophy  of  government,  35,  and  note ;  in 
peace   negotiations   of   1782,   42. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  on  acquisition  of  Louisi- 
ana, 100,  note ;  102,  note ;  interpretation  of 
Missouri  contest,  128  ;  presidential  candidate 
in  1824,  131,  note  ;  133-135  ;  second  choice  of 
Northvi^est,  138  and  note ;  139-140  ;  coalition 
with  Clay,  140-142 ;  planters  alienated  by 
policies   as   president,    143. 

Addison,  Alexander,  judge  in  western  Penn- 
sylvania, 67. 

Agrarian  interest.  See  Agriculture,  and  Farm- 
era. 

Agriculture,  development  in  "back  country" 
east  of  Alleghanies,  12-13 ;  sale  of  surplus 
produce,  15  ;  basis  of  republican  government, 
37 ;  Jefferson's  views  on,  48-50 ;  effect  of 
growth  of  West,  84  ;  European  restrictions 
on  American,  90  ;  home  market  for,  87,  88, 
90-91,  99  ;  decline  in  New  England,  92  ;  sig- 
nificance of  surplus  production  in  West,  94  ; 
outstrips  manufacturing  in  West,  99,  109- 
111,  113,  note;  problem  of  market  for  west- 
ern surplus,  99-102,  109-111  ;  need  of  trans- 
portation facilities,  100-104 ;  harmony  of 
agricultural  and  manufacturing  interests, 
113. 

Alien  and  Sedition  Acts,  effect  on  West,  52 ; 
on  New  York,   64. 

American  System,  foreshadowed,  88  ;  developed, 
88-91  ;  supplants  preparedness  program,  89  ; 
espoused  by  West,  107-112;  Clay  on,  89-91. 
113,  note;  opposition  of  South,  117-125;  up- 
held by  Ohio  in  campaign  of  1824,  131,  and 
note;  132,  136,  and  note;  Adams's  views  on, 
133-134;  Jackson's  views  on,  136,  note; 
platform  of  National  Republican  party,  141. 

Ames,  Fisher,  on  reasons  for  adoption  of  con- 
stitution, 29  ;  on  Whiskey  Rebellion,  67, 
note;  member  of  Essex  Junto,  71,  note;  at- 
titude on  secession  of  New  England,  104, 
note. 

Aristocracy,  origin,  10-12 ;  dominance  in  gov- 
ernment of  colonies,  16-20  ;  loss  of  ground 
during  Revolution,  23-24  ;  control  in  fram- 
ing state  constitutions,  24-27 ;  influence  on 
federal  Constitution,  29-33  ;  Federalist  Party 
affected,  33-35 ;  65,  note ;  80. 


"Back  country,"  settlement,  12-14  ;  grievances, 
14-19  ;  characteristics,  20-22  ;  petitions  for 
redress,  21  ;  influence  during  Revolution,  22- 
24  ;  struggle  for  rights  after  Revolution,  27  ; 
impossibility  of  secession,  41. 

Bacon's  Rebellion,  10. 

Banks  and  banking,  in  West,  97-99. 

Barbour,  Philip  P.,  old  school  Republican,  117, 
note. 

Burnet,  Jacob,  judge  in  Northwest  Territory, 
a  Federalist,  55  ;  on  separation  of  Michigan 
from  Ohio,  58,  note ;  on  decline  of  Federal- 
ism in  Ohio,  59,  note ;  elected  state  judge, 
59,  note. 

Burr,  Aaron,  influence  over  wavering  Federal- 
ists of  western  New  York,  65. 

Byrd,  William,  interest  in  Virginia  frontier,  10. 

Cabot,  George,  on  cure  for  democracy,  71  ; 
member  of  Essex  Junto,  71,  note;  dislike 
of  democracy,  71,  note ;  attitude  on  seces- 
sion of  New  England,  72,  note. 

Calhoun,  John  C,  leader  of  "Young  Repub- 
licanism," 85 ;  preparedness  program  of 
1816,  87-88;  on  home  market,  88;  speaks 
for  West,  112-113;  on  Bonus  Bill,  113;  lib- 
eral constructionist,  115  ;  presidential  candi- 
date in  1824,  132  ;  vice-presidential  candi- 
date,  132,   138. 

Canals.    See  Internal  Improvements. 

Capitalism,  representation  in  federal  conven- 
tion, 29,  30 ;  favorable  to  adoption  of  Con- 
stitution, 33,  35  ;  a  basis  of  Federalist  party, 
35,   80. 

Clay,  Henry,  leader  of  "Young  Republican- 
ism," 85 ;  preparedness  program  of  1816, 
87-88 ;  develops  American  System,  88-91  ; 
voices  demands  of  West,  112-113;  injured  by 
friendship  for  United  States  Bank,  99,  135 ; 
liberal  constructionist,  115-116;  reasons  for 
opposition  to  Monroe,  116  ;  presidential  can- 
didate in  1824,  131,  note;  135-139;  hope  of 
support  of  Virginia,  137,  note ;  reasons  for 
supporting  Adams  in  House  election,  139- 
140  ;  appointment  as  Secretary  of  State,  140  ; 
bargain    charge,    142. 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  supported  in  Ohio  in  1812, 
62,    note ;   in   New  York,    66,   note ;   asks   aid 


151 


152 


INDEX 


of  Ohio  for  Erie  canal,  103 ;  presidential 
candidate  in  1824,  131,  note ;  133  ;  attempts 
at  coalition  favorable   to,    138. 

Commerce,  alliance  with  planting,  15 ;  be- 
tween interior  and  coast,  15-16 ;  a  basis  of 
Federalism,  33,  80  ;  Jefferson's  view  of,  37  ; 
favored  by  Ohio  Federalist,  62 ;  restrictions 
on,  72 ;  growth  of  western,  84 ;  effect  of 
western  development  on  maritime,  84,  92- 
93,  114;  between  transalleghany  region  and 
coast,  89,  and  note  ;  99  ;  importance  of  west- 
ern, after  1815,  92  ;  between  town  and  coun- 
try, 94  ;  South  as  market  for  West,  95,  123  ; 
high  freight  rates  to  West,  100,  and  note ; 
need  of  internal  improvements  to  promote, 
100-104. 

Connecticut,  settlement,  13 ;  emigration  from 
to  Pennsylvania,   66  ;  constitution  of  1818,  79. 

Constitution,  movement  for  influenced  by  ex- 
cesses of  Confederation  period,  27-29  ;  due  to 
conservative  reaction,  29-30  ;  make-up  of  fed- 
eral convention,  30  ;  aristocracy  of  provi- 
sions, 30-33  ;  recognition  of  democratic  the- 
ory, 32-33  ;  divisions  on  ratification  perpetu- 
ate former  alignment  of  social  classes,  33,  34. 

Constitutions,  character  of  state  constitutions 
of  the  Revolutionary  period,  24-26. 

Crawford,  William  H.,  presidential  candidate 
in  1824,  132-133 ;  attempt  at  coalition  with 
Clay,    137-138. 

Currency.    See  Money. 

Democracy,  origin  in  interior,  10-14  ;  strength- 
ened by  Revolutionary  philosophy,  22 ;  alli- 
ance with  proletariat  of  towns,  23 ;  prog- 
ress during  Revolution,  23-24  ;  miscarriage 
of  movement,  24-27  ;  struggle  for  relief  legis- 
lation during  Confederation,  27-28  ;  influence 
on  movement  for  constitution,  28-29  ;  recog- 
nition of  democratic  theory  in  Constitution, 
32-33 ;  carried  beyond  AUeghanies,  42,  51, 
92,  141  ;  only  practicable  plan  of  govern- 
ment in  West,  43,  44,  45,  48-49  ;  influence 
of  New  York  frontier,  64  ;  of  western  Penn- 
sylvania, 66-68  ;  departure  of  West  from  Jef- 
fersonian  democracy,  105,  110 ;  triumph  of 
democratic  ideals  of  government  in  new 
states,  141  ;  national  triumph  foreshadowed, 
141  ;  reasons  for  friendliness  of  western  de- 
mocracy for  old  South,  142-143  ;  Jacksonian 
movement,   143-144. 

Democratic  party  (Jacksonian),  perpetuates  al- 
liance of  farmers  and  planters,  141-143  ;  de- 
fection  of  southerners,    144. 

Dickinson,  John,  a  moderate  during  Revolu- 
tion, 23 ;  objects  to  property  qualifications 
for   federal  offices,   31,   note. 


Election,  presidential,  of  1796,  53,  64  ;  of  1800, 
65,  68  ;  of  1804,  56,  69 ;  of  1808,  72-73  ;  of 
1812,  62,  note;  66,  and  note;  of  1816,  79 
et  seq.;  of  1824,  127-140. 

Ellsworth,  Oliver,  opposes  freehold  qualifica- 
tion for  federal  office,  31,  note. 

Embargo,  influence  on  Federalist  party  in 
New  York,  66,  note ;  in  Massachusetts,  72 ; 
in    Virginia,    72 ;   prolongrs   life  of  Federalist 

party,   72. 

Era  of  Good  Feeling,  character  of,  81-82. 

Erie  Canal.    See  Internal  Improvements. 

Essex  Junto,  influence  on  framing  of  Massa- 
chusetts constitution  of  1780,  26,  note  ;  mem- 
bers and  views,  71,  note ;  opposes  secession 
of  New   England,   72,   note. 

Farmers,  competition  with  planters  for  lands, 
10,  41,  92,  114  ;  union  with  planters  in  Jef- 
fersonian    Republican    party,    39-40,    41. 

Fearing,  Paul,  delegate  of  Northwest  Terri- 
tory in  Congress,   56. 

Federalist  party,  continuity  with  colonial  aris- 
tocracy, 33  ;  political  philosophy,  34,  35  ; 
foredoomed  by  growth  of  West,  51 ;  never  a 
force  south  of  Ohio  River,  51-52  ;  Federal- 
ist office-holders  in  West,  52,  note ;  54-55  ; 
attitude  towards  admission  of  Tennessee, 
53-54 ;  in  Ohio,  54-62  ;  opposition  to  admis- 
sion of  Ohio  as  state,  56-58  ;  decline  in  Ohio, 
58-62  ;  influence  in  Ohio  elections,  59-61  ;  fu- 
sion in  Ohio  with  Republicans,  61-62  ;  success 
in  New  York  due  to  immigration  from  New 
England,  63  ;  conversion  of  New  York  Fed- 
eralists to  Republicanism,  64-65  ;  decline  of 
party  in  New  York,  65-66  ;  decline  in  Penn- 
sylvania, 66-68  ;  portent  of  election  of  1800, 
68  ;  loss  of  support  in  South,  68  ;  growth  of 
West  unfavorable,  69  ;  opposition  to  acquisi- 
tion of  Louisiana,  69-70  ;  secession  scheme  of 
1804,  70-71  ;  influence  of  embargo  and  com- 
mercial restriction,  72-73  ;  opposition  to  ad- 
mission of  state  of  Louisiana,  73-75  ;  growth 
of  West  a  grievance  in  period  of  War  of 
1812,  75-77 ;  disintegration  after  War  of 
1812,  78-80 ;  campaign  of  1816,  79-80  ;  rea- 
sons for  downfall,  80  ;  opposition  to  admis- 
sion of  Missouri,  127-129 ;  supposed  efforts 
to  revive  party,  128-129 ;  relation  to  Na- 
tional Republican  party,  142,  note  ;  prejudice 
against  West  expressed,  67,  note ;  75,  note ; 
127,   note. 

Findlay,  William,  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  on 
protection  of  manufactures  and  a  home 
market.   111. 


INDEX 


153 


Franklin,  Benjamin,  opposes  freehold  qualifi- 
cation for  federal  office,  31,  note ;  views  con- 
cerning government  of  colonies  in  West,  42- 
43 ;  agent  of  Vandalia  Company,  43 ;  views 
cited  by  western  writer,  112,  note. 

Freight  rates,  to  west,  100,  and  note ;  in 
West,   100,  note ;  effect  of  canals  on,   104. 

Frontier.    See   "Back   Country,"   and    West. 

German,  Obadiah,  New  York  assemblyman,  65  ; 
United  States  senator,   65. 

Germans,  on  early  frontier,  12  et  acq. 

Gerry,  Eldridge,  distrust  of  people,  31 ;  oppo- 
sition to  equal  rights  of  western  states,  in 
federal  convention,  47. 

Giles,  William  B.,  motion  for  admission  of 
Ohio,  57 ;  justifies  separation  of  Michigan 
from  Ohio,  58. 

Gorham,  Nathaniel,  opposition  to  equal  rights 
of  western  states,  in  federal  convention,  47. 

Griswold,  Roger,  speech  on  admission  of  Ohio, 
57  ;  on  government  of  acquired  territory,  70, 
note ;  favors  secession  of  New  England,  72, 
note. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  on  reasons  for  adoption 
of  Constitution,  29 ;  philosophy  of  govern- 
ment, 34-35  ;  death,  66,  note  ;  attitude  toward 
western  Pennsylvania,  67  ;  proposal  concern- 
ing choice  of  New  York  electors,  68,  note ; 
opposes  secession  scheme,   71,  note. 

Hanson,  A.  C,  Maryland  Federalist,  on  seces- 
sion, 76,  note. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  recommends  divi- 
sion of   Northwest   Territory,    56. 

Hartford  Convention,   76. 

Henry,  Patrick,  leader  of  frontier  democracy 
of  Virginia  during  Revolution,  24. 

Hillsborough,  Lord,  views  concerning  new  col- 
onies in  West,  43. 

Home  market,  Calhoun  on,  87 ;  Pittsburg  an 
object  lesson,  90,  note ;  result  of  rise  of 
towns  in  West,  94  ;  Governor  Huntington  of 
Ohio  on,  96  ;  relation  to  protective  tariff, 
107-112;  Clay,  on,  113,  note;  South  out  of 
range   of  benefit,    117-125. 

Huntington,  Samuel,  candidate  for  governor  of 
Ohio,    60  ;   on  manufactures,   96. 

Internal  improvements,  desired  in  West,  62, 
100-104;  lesson  of  War  of  1812,  86;  favored 


by  Madison  in  messages,  86  ;  desired  by  Clay, 
87,  113;  by  Porter,  89,  note;  state  schemes  of 
to  counteract  westward  movement,  93  ;  Erie 
canal,  103,  105  ;  Ohio  canal  system,  103-104  ; 
Louisville  canal,  106  ;  place  in  American  Sys- 
tem, 112 ;  history  of,  in  South,  124-125 ; 
issue  in  campaign  of  1824,  132. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  on  extermination  of  party 
spirit,  82,  note;  presidential  candidate  in 
1824,  136-137  ;  reasons  for  triumph  in  1828, 
141-143. 

Jay,  John,  drafts  New  York  constitution,  26 ; 
aristocratic  views,  26  ;  in  peace  negotiations 
of   1782.  42 ;  retirement,  66,  note. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  "Squatter  sovereignty"  doc- 
trine, 21 ;  leader  of  frontier  democracy  of 
Virginia  during  Revolution,  24  ;  comment  on 
minority  rule  in  Virginia,  1780,  25 ;  draft 
constitution  for  Virginia,  25,  note ;  political 
philosophy,  36-39 ;  nationalism  of,  in  1816, 
86;  views  repudiated  by  West,  105,  110;  cited 
by  western  writer,  112,  note ;  on  internal 
improvements,  116,  note;  reactionary,  117, 
note ;  on  sectional  realignment  in  1825,  142, 
note. 

Jennings,  Jonathan,  governor  of  Indiana,  on 
protection  of  manufactures  and  home  mar- 
ket, 111. 

Kentucky,  democracy  of  pioneers,  51  ;  ten- 
dencies towards  Jeffersonian  Republicanism, 
51  ;  vote  on  Constitution,  51  ;  effect  of  Fed- 
eralist measures,  51-52  ;  Resolutions  of  1798, 
62. 

King,  Rufus,  wishes  admission  of  new  states 
delayed,  46,  and  note ;  opposition  to  equal 
rights  of  western  states,  in  federal  conven- 
tion, 47  ;  on  admission  of  Tennessee,  54  ;  on 
acquisition  of  Louisiana,  70,  note  ;  72,  note ; 
opposes  secession  of  New  England,  72,  note ; 
nominated  for  governor  of  New  York  by 
Federalists,  1816,  79 ;  defeated,  79 ;  view  of 
party  outlook,  79 ;  receives  Federalist  elec- 
toral votes  in  1816,  80 ;  foresees  importance 
of  West,  93  ;  leadership  in  opposition  to  ad- 
mission of  Missouri  as  state,   127-129. 

Kirker,  Thomas,  candidate  for  governor  of 
Ohio,  60. 

Knox,  Henry,  on  Shays'  Rebellion,  28. 

Land,  law  of  1785,  46 ;  of  1820  and  1821,  91  ; 
attraction  of,  for  immigrants  to  West,  99, 
and    note. 

Locke,  John,  influence  of  political  philosophy 
of,  21,  27. 


154 


INDEX 


Louisiana,  contest  over  admission  of  state  of, 
73-76. 

Louisiana,   purchase,   contest  over,   69-70. 

Lowndes,  William,  member  of  Congress  from 
South  Carolina,  introduces  tariff  bill  of  1816, 
117. 

Macon,  Nathaniel,  on  admission  of  Louisi- 
ana as  state,  74,  note. 

Madison,  James,  leader  of  frontier  democracy 
of  Virginia  during  Revolution,  24 ;  favors 
popular  election  of  president  and  senators, 
30  ;  upholds  compact  theory,  33  ;  reasons  for 
opposing  Hamilton's  policies,  39,  note ;  up- 
holds equality  of  rights  of  western  states, 
in  federal  convention,  48 ;  on  admission  of 
Tennessee,  54 ;  opposed  for  presidency  by 
alliance  of  Quids  and  Federalists,  72 ;  na- 
tionalism of,  in  1816,  86  ;  believes  cheap  land 
an  impediment  to  manufactures,  99,  note ; 
vetoes  Bonus  Bill,  115 ;  reactionary  ten- 
dencies,  117,  note. 

Manufactures,  beginnings  in  "back  country," 
15 ;  Jefferson's  dislike  of,  37,  and  note ;  de- 
sired by  Ohio  Federalists,  62 ;  effect  of 
growth  of  West,  84  ;  lesson  of  War  of  1812, 
85  ;  favored  by  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Mon- 
roe, 86 ;  favored  by  Clay  and  Calhoun,  87 ; 
place  in  American  System,  90  ;  stimulated  by 
isolation  of  West,  94,  and  note ;  growth  of 
western,  94-95 ;  Governor  Huntington,  of 
Ohio,  on,  96  ;  desire  of  West  for,  96-97,  108- 
109  ;  measures  of  West  to  promote,  108-112  ; 
Clay  on  relations  of  manufactures  and  agri- 
culture, 113,  and  note  ;  issue  in  campaign  of 
1824,   131-132. 

Marshall,  John,  decisions  as  chief  justice,  117, 
note. 

Mason,  George,  leader  of  frontier  democracy 
of  Virginia  during  Revolution,  24 ;  views 
Senate  as  bulwark  of  property  rights,  30 ; 
opposes  popular  choice  of  president,  30  ;  fa- 
vors freehold  qualification  for  members  of 
Congress,  31,  note ;  opposes  freehold  quali- 
fication for  voters,  32,  note ;  upholds  com- 
pact theory,  32 ;  upholds  equality  of  rights 
of  western  states,  in  federal  convention,  48. 

Massachusetts,  social  cleavage  and  expansion, 
13-14 ;  constitution  of  1780,  26  ;  political  ef- 
fect of  emigration  to  West,  71,  note ;  political 
effect  of  embargo,  72 ;  opposition  to  new 
states,  75-76. 

Massie,  Nathaniel,  candidate  for  governor  of 
Ohio,  60. 


Meigs,  Return  Jonathan,  Jr.,  candidate  for 
governor  of  Ohio,   60-61. 

Michigan,   separation    from    Ohio,    58. 

Missouri,  contest  over  admission  as  state,  127- 
130  ;  opposition  to  admission  associated  with 
Federalism,    128-129 ;   compromise,    129-130. 

Money  and  currency,  legislation  in  colonial 
period,  16 ;  demand  of  pioneers  for  paper 
money,  16,  27-28 ;  lesson  of  War  of  1812, 
85  ;  effect  of  trade  upon,  in  West,  96-99  ; 
system  of  West,  97-98  ;  United  States  Bank 
in  West,  98-99. 

Monroe,  James,  friends  seek  aid  of  Federal- 
ists against  Madison  in  contest  for  presi- 
dential nomination,  1808,  72  ;  nationalism  of, 
in  1816,  86;  strict  constructionist,  115;  re- 
actionary views,  117,  and  note;  relation  to 
Missouri  compromise,  129 ;  policies  disliked 
in  West,  132,  and  note. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  aristocratic  views,  32,  and 
note ;  opposition  to  equality  of  rights  of 
western  states,  in  federal  convention,  46-47, 
49,  and  note ;  on  acquisition  of  Louisiana, 
70,  and  note ;  on  government  of  acquired 
territory,  70,  note;  on  temper  of  Republi- 
cans after  1800,  81. 

National  economy.    See  American  System. 

National  Republican  party,  platform,  141  ; 
based  on  alliance  of  Northeast  and  West, 
141 ;  not  a  revival  of  Federalism,   142,  note. 

Nationalism  of  period  following  War  of  1812, 
85-88,  91  ;  tendencies  of  West  towards,  104- 
107  ;  reaction  of  South  against,  116-117. 

New  School  Republicans.  See  Republican  party. 

New  York,  social  stratification  in  colonial,  11 ; 
German  immigration,  12 ;  Revolutionary 
movement,  24 ;  constitution,  26 ;  strength  of 
antifederalism,  63 ;  triumph  of  Federalism, 
1794,  63 ;  immigration  from  New  England, 
63 ;  reversion  to  Republicanism,  63-66 ;  de- 
cline of  Federalism,  66,  and  note ;  decisive 
weight  in  election  of  1800,  68 ;  failure  of 
Federalists   to   carry   in    1816,   79. 

North  Carolina,  early  sectionalism,  11 ;  settle- 
ment of  piedmont,  12  ;  grievances  of  interior, 
16 ;  government  of  interior,  19 ;  Regulation 
movement,  22  ;  cession  of  western  lands,  50, 
53. 

Northwest  Territory,  Federalism  and  Repub- 
licanism in,  54,  et  aeq.;  contest  over  di- 
vision of,  55-56. 


INDEX 


155 


Ohio,  early  settlers  Federalists,  54 ;  immigra- 
tion of  Republicans,  55  ;  contest  over  admis- 
sion as  state,  56-57 ;  constitutional  conven- 
tion, 58-59  ;  party  history,  59-62  ;  election  of 
1806-1807,  60 ;  controversy  over  right  of 
court  to  hold  acts  void,  60 ;  fusion  of  par- 
ties, 61-62,  102 ;  growth  of  manufactures, 
94-95 ;  exports,  99,  note ;  101  ;  interest  in 
Erie  canal,  103,  105  ;  state  canal  system,  103- 
104 ;  economic  unity  with  Northeast,  103, 
note ;  138  ;  140  ;  in  campaign  of  1824-1825, 
130-139 ;  criticism  of  Monroe,  132 ;  attitude 
toward  presidential  candidates  in  campaign 
of  1824:  Calhoun,  132;  Crawford,  132-133; 
Clinton,  133  ;  Adams,  133-135  ;  Clay,  135-136  ; 
Jackson,  136-137  ;  attempts  at  coalitions, 
137-139. 

Otto,  Louis  Guillaume,  minister  of  France,  on 
reasons   for   framing   Constitution,    30,   note. 

Owen,  G.  W.,  member  of  Congress  from  Ala- 
bama, on  tariff  of  1824,   123. 

Parties,  political,  contrast  between  European 
and  American,  9 ;  origin  in  America,  9 ; 
Whigs  and  Loyalists  in  Revolution,  22  ;  per- 
petuation of  old  divisions  in  Federalist  and 
Republican  parties,  33-34  ;  causes  of  periodic 
realignment  in  United  States,  81 ;  obscurity 
of  forces  affecting,  in  "era  of  good  feeling," 
82  ;  change  in  geographical  basis,  1790-1830, 
82-85 ;  realignment  during  decade  following 
War  of  1812,  127-144.  See  Federalist  party. 
Democratic  party;  National  Republican  par- 
ty ;   Republican    party. 

Peck,  Jedediah,  New  York  assemblyman,  64 ; 
arrest  and  trial,  64-65. 

Pennsylvania,  immigration,  12,  66 ;  system  of 
apportionment,  18  ;  Revolutionary  movement, 
23 ;  constitution,  26  ;  Federalism  in,  66-68  ; 
democracy  of  western,  67  ;  bitterness  of  par- 
ty feelings,   68. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  fears  West  will  be  set- 
tled by  lawless  men,  45  ;  action  on  proposed 
gerrymander  of  the  Northwest  Territory, 
56  ;  on  growth  of  West,  69  ;  on  government 
of  acquired  territory,  70,  note ;  on  a  north- 
ern confederacy,  71  ;  renews  suggestion  of  a 
northern  confederacy,  76-77  ;  sympathy  with 
South,   77  ;  dislike  of  West,    77,  and   note. 

Piedmont   stock,    migration   to   West,   92. 

Pinckney,  Charles,  distrust  of  people,  31 ;  fa- 
vors freehold  qualification  for  federal  office, 
31,  and  note. 

Planting  interest,  competition  with  fanning 
interest   for  lands,    10,   41,   92,    114 ;  ally   of 


New  England  commercial  interest,  15,  77 ; 
political  dominance  of  planters  in  colonial  era, 
17-19  ;  Republicanism  of  planters,  39-40,  68  ; 
effect  of  growth  of  West  upon,  84,  114 ;  re- 
lations of,  to  American  System,  90-91,  117- 
125;  expansion  of,  92,  114;  trade  relations 
with  Northwest,  95,  123,  and  note ;  contrast 
of  prosperity  in  old  and  new  regions,  119 ; 
support  of  Jackson  in  1828,   143-144. 

Piatt,  Jonas,  Federalist  candidate  for  governor 
of  New  York,  65. 

Plumer,  William,  favors  secession  of  New  Eng- 
land, 72,  note. 

Poindexter,  George,  on  admission  of  Louisi- 
ana as  state,  74-75. 

Porter,  Peter  B.,  leader  of  "Young  Republi- 
canism," 85  ;  on  internal  improvements,  89, 
note ;  on  need  of  market  for  produce  of 
West,    152,    note. 

Preparedness,  economic,  in  1816,  87-88 ;  over- 
shadowed  by   American    System,   88-89. 

Prices,  in  West,  107,  note ;  108,  note ;  antici- 
pated effect  of  canals  on,  104. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  on  admission  of  Louisiana  as 
state,  73-74  ;  leader  of  anti-expansion  agita- 
tion  in   Massachusetts,   75. 

Randolph,  John,  Virginia  reactionary,  117, 
note;  on  tariff  of  1816,  118;  on  tariff  of 
1824,  124. 

Regulators,  21,  22. 

Religious  controversies,  in  Massachusetts,  13 ; 
between  interior  and  coast,  15  ;  in  Connecti- 
cut,  15,   note ;   79. 

Republican  party,  continuity  with  democracy 
of  back  country,  33-34 ;  political  philosophy 
of,  36-39 ;  absorption  of  planters,  39-40 ; 
view  of  Hamilton's  financial  system,  39-40 ; 
tendencies  of  West  towards,  51-52 ;  attitude 
on  admission  of  Tennessee,  54 ;  beginnings 
in  Ohio,  55 ;  on  admission  of  Ohio,  56-58 ; 
triumph  in  Ohio,  58-59  ;  vicissitudes  in  New 
York,  63-66 ;  strength  in  Pennsylvania,  66- 
68  ;  gains  following  election  of  1800,  68-69  ; 
injured  by  embargo,  72 ;  on  admission  of 
Louisiana  as  state,  74-75  ;  change  in  temper 
after  1800,  81 ;  New  School,  or  "Young"  Re- 
publicans, 85,  115  ;  disruption  by  divergence 
of  South  and  West,  115-125 ;  tendency  in 
Northwest  to  unite  with  Federalism,  61-62, 
102,  128-129  ;  sectional  divisions  in  campaign 
of   1824,    130-141. 

Rhode   Island,   settlement,    13. 


156 


INDEX 


Ritchie,  Thomas,  editor  of  Richmond  Enquirer, 
on  new  interests  after  War  of  1812,  85,  note ; 
on  Adams's  reply  to  General  Smythe,  134, 
note. 

Roane,  Spencer,  old  school  Republican,  117, 
note. 

Ross,  James,  Federalist  of  western  Pennsyl- 
vania, 66,  67,  96 ;  mentioned  as  Federalist 
vice-presidential  candidate   in   1816,   79. 

Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  philosophy,  20,  and 
note ;    influence  in   South    Carolina,   27. 

Rutledge,  John,  opposition  to  equal  rights  of 
western  states,  in  federal  convention,  47. 

St.  Clair,  Arthur,  governor  of  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory ;  a  Federalist,  54-55 ;  distrust  of  set- 
tlers in  Ohio,  55  ;  proposal  of  gerrymander  of 
Northwest  Territory,  55-56  ;  removed  by  Jef- 
ferson, 58. 

Sanford,  Nathan,  of  New  York,  vice-presiden- 
tial candidate  in   1824,  138. 

Sargent,  Winthrop,  secretary  of  Northwest 
Territory,  a  Federalist,  55. 

Scotch-Irish,  in  Pennsylvania,  12 ;  migration, 
12  ;  democracy,  20,  66,  67. 

Sectionalism,  in  vote  on  ratification  of  Con- 
stitution, 33 ;  readjustment  involved  in 
growth  of  West,  84-85,  114-115  ;  in  debate 
on  tariff  of  1816,  88,  117-118  ;  basis  of  Ameri- 
can System,  88-89  ;  in  Clay's  views,  91,  112- 
113  ;  key  to  politics  of  period  1815-1825,  114- 
115  ;  divergence  of  South  and  West,  115-125  ; 
revival  of,  1815-1825,  115,  et  seq. ;  tendencies 
to  alliance  of  West  and  Northeast,  129,  138- 
141  ;  divides  Republican  party  in  campaign 
of  1824,  130  ;  divides  South  and  West  in  1824, 
137-138,  and  notes;  141. 

Shays'  Rebellion,  16,  28. 

Sheffey,  Daniel,  Virginia  Federalist  leader,  73  ; 
on  admission  of  Louisiana  as  state,  74. 

Sherman,  Roger,  distrust  of  people,  30-31. 

Slavery,  issue  in  Missouri  contest,  127-129 ; 
issue  in  Ohio  in  campaign  of  1824,  131,  and 
notes;    132;    133-134;    135. 

Smith,  William,  South  Carolina  Federalist,  on 
admission  of  Tennessee,  63. 

Specie.     See   Money. 

Social  stratification,  in  South  Carolina,  11  ;  in 
New   York,   11-12. 


Social  variation,  general,  9-10,  12  ;  in  Virginia, 
10-11 ;  in  North  Carolina,  11 ;  in  New  Eng- 
land, 13-14 ;  in  New  York,  12  ;  foreshadows 
national  party  cleavage,   22. 

South,  attitude  on  tariff  of  1816,  88,  117-118; 
market  for  produce  of  West,  95,  123,  and 
note ;  opposition  to  American  System,  117- 
125  ;  unites  with  democratic  portion  of  West 
in  support  of  Jackson  in  1828,  141-143. 

South  Carolina,  social  stratification,  11 ;  settle- 
ment of  piedmont,  12  ;  trade  of  interior  with 
coast,  15-16 ;  government  of  interior,  18-19 ; 
Revolutionary  movement,  23-24 ;  constitu- 
tions, 25,  27. 

Squatters,   10,  note;  12,  91. 

Steamboat,   in  western  commerce,   102-103. 

Supporter,  Federalist  newspaper  of  Chillicothe, 
Ohio,  60,  note ;  quoted  on  inactivity  of  Ohio 
Federalists,  59,  61. 

Surplus,  agricultural,  sale  of  in  colonial  times, 
15 ;  significance  in  economic  evolution  of 
West,   93,   et.   seq. 

Tariff,  protective,  favored  by  Madison  and 
Monroe,  86 ;  Clay  and  Calhoun  on  tariff  of 
1816,  87-88;  Baldwin  on  tariff  of  1820,  90. 
note ;  Clay  on  tariff  of  1824,  90-91  ;  attitude 
of  West,  90,  note ;  growth  of  western  senti- 
ment favoring,  107-112;  opposition  of  South, 
117-124 ;  memorials  and  speeches  against, 
119-124 ;  hopes  of  West  concerning  south- 
ern opinion  on,  122-123  ;  issue  in  campaign 
of  1824,  131-132,  and  notes;  views  of  candi- 
dates on,   132-137. 

Tatnall,  Edward  F.,  member  of  Congress  from 
Georgia,  on  tariff  of  1824,  120. 

Tennessee,  democracy  of  pioneers,  51 ;  vote  on 
Constitution,  51 ;  tendencies  towards  Jeffer- 
sonian  Republicanism,  51  ;  effect  of  Federal- 
ist measures,  51-52,  and  notes;  contest  for 
statehood,    53-54. 

Tracy,  Uriah,  on  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  69, 
note ;  favoi-s  secession  of  New  England,  72, 
note. 

Taylor,  John,  old  school  Republican,  117,  note. 

Tyler,   John,   old  school  Republican,    117,   note. 

United  States  Bank.    See  Banks  and  Banking. 

Virginia,  early  sectionalism,  10-11  ;  government 
of  interior,  18 ;  democratic  movement,  22  ; 
constitution  of  1776,  24-25 ;  on  assumption, 
89,  and  note ;  cession  of  western  lands,  45. 


INDEX 


157 


Washington,  George,  on  Shays'  Rebellion,  28- 
29  ;  appeal  to  West  in  Farewell  Address,  52, 
and  note. 

West,  "Old  West,"  42  ;  beginnings  beyond  Alle- 
ghanies,  42  ;  origin  of  political  rights  of,  42- 
45 ;  provisions  of  Albany  Plan  concerning, 
42  ;  Franklin's  views  concerning  government 
of  colonies  in,  42-43  ;  projects  of  new  colo- 
nies, 1754-1774,  43  ;  dispute  over  ownership 
of  lands,  44-45  ;  Maryland's  demand  for  free 
government  in,  44 ;  equal  rights  promised, 
44-45  ;  apprehensions  of  East  concerning  in- 
fluence of,  45-48,  69-71,  73-77,  93 ;  prejudice 
against  East,  46  ;  opposition  to  equal  rights 
for,  in  federal  convention,  46-49 ;  pledge  of 
equal  statehood  in  Ordinance  of  1787,  50  ;  by 
Congress,  44,  50 ;  destruction  of  Federalism 
involved  in  growth  of,  51,  69-70,  73  ;  growth 
of,  in  political  power,  69,  84  ;  in  population, 
83 ;  in  economic  importance,  84 ;  sentiment 
on  tariff,  90,  note ;  demands  voiced  by  Clay, 
112-113;  development  of,  1815-1825,  91-93; 
account  of  economic  evolution  of,  93-112 ; 
growth  of  manufactures  in,  94-95  ;  views  of, 
on  industry,  95-97  ;  banking  system  of,  97-98  ; 
attacks  on  United  States  Bank,  98-99  ;  South 
as  market  for  surplus  of,  95,  123,  and  note ; 
agricultural  development  of,  99-101 ;  impedi- 
ments to  trade,  99-100  ;  demand  for  internal 
improvements,  101-104 ;  departure  from  Jef- 
fersonian  democracy,  and  tendency  towards 
nationalism,  104-107,  112  ;  efforts  to  encour- 
age "home"  industry,  107-112 ;  hope  of  fa- 
vorable view  in  South  on  tariff,  122-123 ; 
tendency  towards  alliance  with  Northeast, 
129,  138,  139-141  ;  self-assertion  in  campaign 
of  1824,  130 ;  agreement  on  issues  of  cam- 
paign,  131,  and  note ;  opposition  to  Monroe, 


132,  and  notes ;  part  in  presidential  cam- 
paign of  1824,  130-140 ;  economic  interests 
irreconcilable  with  those  of  South,  137-138 ; 
divided  in  support  of  National  Republican 
and  Jacksonian  Democratic  parties,  1828, 
141-143. 

Wheaton,  Laban,  member  of  Congress  from 
Massachusetts,  on  admission  of  Louisiana  as 
state,  74. 

Whigs,  of  Revolution,  contest  with  Loyalists 
obscures  older  antagonism  of  coast  and  in- 
terior, 22 ;  philosophy  reinforces  democratic 
movement,   22. 

Whiskey   Rebellion,   67. 

Wilkinson,  James,  predicts  separation  of  East 
and  West,   46. 

Williams,  R.,  on  admission  of  Ohio,  57,  note. 

Williamson,  Hugh,  opposition  to  equality  of 
rights  of  western  states,  in  federal  conven- 
tion, 48. 

Wilson,  James,  moderate  in  Revolution,  23 ; 
favors  popular  election  of  president  and  sen- 
ators, 30 ;  on  count  of  slaves  for  basis  of 
representation  in  Congress,  32,  note ;  upholds 
equality  of  rights  of  western  states,  in  fed- 
eral  convention,   48-49. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  on  Whiskey  Rebellion,  67, 
note. 

Worthington,  Thomas,  candidate  for  governor 
of  Ohio,  60 ;  on  maufactures,  96,  105 ;  on 
need  of  market  for  western  produce,  101 ; 
on  Erie  canal,   103. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY — TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


NOV    6  1968  4  7 


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